


All is Fair in Love and Prank Wars

by Reaxeon



Series: Pixie Pranks [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: College Student Reader, F/M, Reader Is Not Frisk, Scientist Reader, Scientist Sans, alcholic reader, but i might continue this later on with a sequel, if you all want that bad enough, some hints of it and heavy petting maybe maybe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-13
Updated: 2016-08-31
Packaged: 2018-06-08 03:17:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 29,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6836902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reaxeon/pseuds/Reaxeon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So a drunk stumbles into a skeleton, and steps on a whoopie cushion. </p><p>Your life always did seem to be the set up of some sort of joke.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Skeleton?

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Postcards and Bad Decisions](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6344533) by [Costumebleh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Costumebleh/pseuds/Costumebleh). 



You stumbled and cursed softly under your breath, trying to just keep your damned eyes open for a bit longer. It was dark outside as you stuck a hand haphazardly into your pocket in search of your school ID. Tonight, you had decided was a good night to celebrate. It always was, around midterms or finals time. If you passed, you drank. If you failed...well you still drank. Drinking was the only thing you could do being mostly a loner like you were at the college you went to. Your roommate was a straight edge kinda pal, but he didn't hold it against you that you the way you are. He did worry though. 

Idly considering just calling Liam and telling him to come and cart your body up to your room passed through your mind and promptly left as a wave of nausea rolled through your body. It was a tense moment as you stood stock still and tried not to empty out your stomach. The sound of other college students wandering around on the sidewalks and chatting in the cool night air, crickets creaking, it was almost too picture perfect for your alcohol addled brain to take full appreciation of.

The moment passed and with a sigh of relief you swiped the card and stumbled inside, door slamming shut heavily behind you. Now for an important life decision. Stairs, or elevator. Staring at the stairwell you muttered a soft 'fuck that' and crashed into the wall next to the elevator, slapping the wall a few times until the button was finally pushed. A giggle bubbled up at the sound of your slightly sweaty hands beating against the smooth cool wall. 

The doors slide open and a blue bunny guy walked out, shooting you a quick glance and smile before going on his way. Yup. Monsters. They are a thing. Had been for about three years. It was only last year that they had gotten rights to go about as citizens, though they were treated like second rate at best. The only places that wanted them were colleges and charities. Most everyone else turned them away but rallies and support systems had been built upon. 

But as of right now your drunken ass didn't care about that so much as making sure to get to the right floor. It wouldn't be the first time you had drunkenly knocked at the wrong door but it shouldn't be that hard. Room 418, easy peasy lemony squeezy-ed. Okay time to take in more air. Brain cells dying. Try to fight off the heavy hand of sleep and remember that fucking number. What was it again?

Trying to breath evenly you let out a gasp of surprise as the elevator doors open and you're dumped on your ass at the floor you had picked. A few minutes spent laying there, cheek pressed to the blessedly cool tile before you decided that was enough, and you got to your feet. The world spun around you like a demented tilt a whirl, but much like a wibble wobble you can get knocked around but you don't stay down for long. Ping ponging yourself along the walls of the hallway you make your way, stopping at the door and patting at your pockets. 

It would figure you had left your keys somewhere. Hopefully that somewhere was your desk like usual but if not, well, the bar knew your number rather well. Face too if you were being honest with yourself. Maybe you had a problem. Details, details.

“Liam! LIAM. WAKE UP AND LEMME IN YOU LAZY BONES.” You shout, slamming your open palm on the door. 

There was a heavy thump, like someone falling out of bed and it may have been your drunken daze but you could have sworn there was a buzzing like electricity in the air, a static taste on your tongue as the door was flung open.

Instead of the concerned brown face you were expecting, there was a grinning gleaming white skull and flashing blue iris staring you down, instead. 

Blinking you squint at the skeleton and point, swaying in your spot. “You're not Liam.” 

“nope. 'friad not, pal.” His voice was gravelly, as if he'd just woken up.

Something about his smile seemed relieved at the sight of you, and his eye died down but there was no time for that. 

“What room's this?” You slur.

“413 friend.” He said simply, still standing there, leaning on the door frame. 

Was that a skeleton shirt under that blue hoodie or was he shirtless under there? Drunken you was very obvious in your curious gaze and a rough chuckle had you snapping your eyes up to his. 

“see something you like pal?”

“Yes-I mean! Shit! Hahaaa...” The words slipped out without a care as the battle to keep your eyes open got harder and harder. 

The skeleton quirked a brow bone, but you were already nodding off where you stood, not catching the soft expression that came over his face.

“hey, pal. stay with me a sec here. whats your room number at least?” He said, poking at your shoulder gently.

“I 'on't 'ember... four! Teen somethin'...” You mumble, leaning on the wall.

“well, 'four teen something', i think you need to crash before you burn, i got a spot for ya. come on in.”

“Whaa?” You manage to grumble softly as you feel cool hard fingers tug at your wrist and start to lead you inside the room. “No du' worry I gots it. You don't haveta...”

A yawn cut you off as you let him lead you inside and you were out like a light as soon as your head hit the pillow of his bed. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When you woke up, there was a sticky note stuck to your forehead. 

-hey, glad youre still alive and kickin if youre readin this.  
your phone went crazy from a liam person but it died so I plugged it in for ya  
nice meetin ya four teen something, try not to scare any other monsters to death at midnight.- 

The backside of it had a P.S.

-might wanna watch where you step.-

What did that mean? Rubbing your eyes you swung your legs over and got off of the bed only to let out a startled squeak at the sound that ripped through the air. 

Pppppppppppppffffffffffffffffffffffffrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrttt.

That motherfucker left whoopie cushions everywhere. 

This meant war.


	2. You are my Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reader is a bit of a spitfire and Sans is a bit of a smug asshole.

Taking quick stock of your situation as you rubbed the last of sleep from your eyes, you noticed the distinct absence of personal belongings. Most dorm rooms were a clutter of personal mementos and pictures of family or friends, or at the very least a bunch of posters or games related to people's hobbies. The only desk was a mess of papers that looked somewhat familiar even in your hungover haze, but there weren't any pictures. No knick knacks unless you count the strangely tall pile of what looked like socks of every color and size. Shaking your head you tried to step around the mine field of farts to leave. No reason to stick around this jokers room now that you were sober enough to find your way to 418 easily. You'd be back, for revenge, but no need to linger. Idly you wonder where the skeleton even went. And why he left you in his room alone. That was just stupid honestly, you could steal all his shit if you wanted, but you weren't that kind of person. 

The door opened easily enough and as you went to walk through you did not look where you were going. If you had you would have noticed the faint sheen of plastic right before you smashed your face against saran wrap and fell backwards onto your back as you were unceremoniously close-lined, a chorus of whoopie cushions greeting your untimely demise. 

Ppppppppfrrrrrrrrrrtfpfppppppppppfrtpfffffffffffpfrtttttttttttttt – tt.

Okay this is more than war, this is personal, this means a nuclear reaction. 

As you tried to lift your head, which was now throbbing with a vengeance from the fall and the loud noises that no hungover person would ever want to be faced with so viciously in the morning, you catch sight of your nemesis. The bright blue towel hung around his hips haphazardly and you could feel your face rush with heat, something about seeing all those bones glistening in the morning light felt just... That explains at least where he went.

A chuckle broke through your thoughts as he simply tilted his head to the side and walked in, avoiding the saran wrap entirely in a way that made your blood boil. Smug asshole. Averting your gaze you let your head fall back to the floor, gently, and sighed loudly. 

“You are despicable.” You whisper harshly, as he stepped closer and loomed over you, grin wider than should be physically possible. 

“did ya not read the note? i warned you to watch your step.” He drawled, sitting at his desk without a care in the world, towel draped dramatically as he crossed one leg over the other and set his jaw in the palm of one of his hands. 

“You are a smug bastard. And cruel.” You rasp, not even bothering to sit up. 

It was time to die, no more cruel world, or cruel skeletons for that matter. Death can take you away to the sweet dark quiet bliss of the afterlife as long as the reaper didn't look like a smug ass skeleton in a towel. 

A knock at the doorway had you looking up as best as you can, only to see a very familiar face. 

“Liam! Save me.” You plead softly, arms coming up halfheartedly before falling to the floor again, setting off the sound of the rest of the surrounding whoopie cushions not yet squished. 

“From what? Yourself?” Liam rolled his eyes as he ducked inside the door and crouched next to your head, brushing hair out of your face. “How much did you drink last night?”

“I unno. Closed down Riley's place as usual.” You mutter, trying to push away his warm hands in favor of the cool floor. 

“That's funny, considering that I got a call from Riley herself and she said you are officially banned from the bar. She said she kicked you out last night for good for not covering your tab. So if that's what you mean by 'closed down' then sure.” Liam was lecturing already. 

Great. Some of the night returned to your mind and you groaned. 

“If I can't go to Riley's I cannot survive.” You moan, whining as Liam sighed heavily and pulled you to your feet. 

The skeleton continued to just watch, his smile frozen in it's place, eyes dark. 

“Thank you again by the way Sans, I know you're new this semester and all so it was real nice of you to let my roommate crash here for the night.”Liam said cheerfully, slinging one of your arms over his shoulders and propping you upright at last despite your protests. 

“'s no problem. try 'n keep them outta trouble, yeah? other monsters might not react to a loud drunk human at midnight as calmly.” He rolled his shoulders and there was a soft clacking of bones. “take care of yourself 'four teen something'. maybe i'll see you 'round campus some time.”

Glaring you made the 'I'm watching you' hand motion and swayed, holding onto Liam for support. 

“I will! Watch yourself Mister Sans man. This here?” You gesture at the whoopie cushions and the doorway. “This is not the end.”

Liam groaned and shook his head, curls flying as he did so. 

“I am so sorry about them, I'll get us out of your...um.” He faltered at the saying and winced.

You on the other hand laughed, loudly, seeming to startle the skeleton with your belly guffaw. 

“Oh god Liam, he doesn't have hair to get out of!” You wave a hand at Sans grandly. “Can't you see he's just skin and bones, sans skin?” 

There was a moment of dead silence before Sans burst out laughing so hard that you thought the room shook. Probably your half drunken state to blame on that one. 

Wiping nonexistent tears from his sockets Sans grinned a much more true smile at you and caught his breath. “That was a good one pal, an' i look forward to whatever else you got up your sleeves.”

Liam, blushing a dark red gripped you and flashed a smile at Sans before bodily dragging you back to your shared room. He was lecturing you on sensitivity and how you were lucky that Sans had a good sense of humor, but you tuned it out in favor of coming up with your first retaliation plot. 

Air horns were always fun...


	3. But?!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey so I know I haven't been posting a lot lately and that has to do with the fact that Im taking summer courses and i have a summer job thats been fucking my ass with the hours theyve been giving me, but I promise to post at least one chapter into ONE of the three stories I got going once a weekend, if not more if I happen to write more, so this is my apology to all of you reading and this chapter is a bit of a please dont hate me for being so slow lol
> 
> enjoy

Liam left you there on your bed and went off to his weekly club meeting. Fencing? You think it was fencing today, honestly he was so busy doing so many different things that you couldn't keep up on it anymore. Cooking, fencing, that big brother thing he does with the kids at the local school and you think you vaguely remember him picking up trash from the highway occasionally. 

You just enjoyed the fact that the room was blessedly dark as you thought about your revenge upon the skeleton. A part of you was honestly just having too much fun with it, there wasn't anything necessarily malicious about your want for vengeance, so much as a prideful and playful part of you that couldn't take a whoopie cushion to the face lying down. Well...figuratively at least. 

Groaning you roll to your side and try to think of the best thing possible to retaliate with. Nothing too severe, at least not yet. Only if he also retaliated, which a part of you honestly hoped he would. It had been years since you had gone head to head with someone in a battle of wits and that was exactly what this was. A humorously charged battle of wits. Liam had long since banned any battles with him, citing that it was bad form to constantly wage war with your roommate and you had to concede to his point, but Sans? 

Sans wasn't your roommate. He was free game and he had just signed himself up for one hell of a time.

...A false offer of forgiveness could work. Sitting up so fast that your head spun for a nauseous second you hopped up to your feet and checked the clock. It was 3pm, all in all this was a hang over now, no longer half drunk. Which meant you could go to the store and pick up the supplies...

It took you a while to find your keys, they were under your bed on the far end near the wall and you had to crawl under to get them but even the headache pounding away on the inner side of your skull was going to keep you from the store now that you had a game plan. 

Running down the stairs two at a time even as you winced at each jarring landing, you sped your way towards your car and grinned as you jumped in, letting out a short soft scream as the music you had left blaring roared to life around you. Fumbling to turn it down you sighed with relief once it was at a much more manageable volume and started towards your destination. It would be simple, really. It would only take a select few items to set your plan into motion. 

Screeching your brakes a little in your haste to get into the grocery shop you wave a hello to the bored looking cat behind the register and head straight to the bakery section, where you started to select the most beautiful and delicious smelling dozen pack of donuts possible. 

You couldn't wait to see the look on his smug skeleton face. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It took you a while, you had ruined at least two donuts on the first attempt, but regardless it only made it seem a bit more natural in your opinion. Eyeing the donuts you lean in to sniff them, and nod happily to yourself when all you got was the sweet scent of their frosting. Nothing was going to give away the plot until he was too far in, so now was the time to put it all into motion. 

Hefting the box up with one hand you carried it down the hall until you found the proper room, and knocked, politely this time. There was no sound for a moment and you thought, disappointingly, that perhaps he wasn't there. As you were about to try and knock a second time you heard the telltale sound of the heavy lock clunking and the door opened to reveal your prey. 

Putting on a happy, kind smile, you waved and bounced in place as you started to speak. 

“Hi again! I just wanted to apologize for all the trouble I put you through last night and this morning. I know it's kind of late for breakfast but I wanted to repay your kindness so I brought you some donuts.” 

If your smile was just a bit too wide and your eyes a bit too sharp as you watched him, he didn't seem to let on that he knew anything was up. His grin was relaxed as he looked at the box in your hands and then glanced up at you, the lights in his eyes seeming to examine you before he shrugged. 

“thanks pal, that's real kind of you.” He said, taking the box as you pushed it towards him. 

“No problem! They should be cream or jelly filled, I wasn't sure which you would like so I just got a mix of them.” 

Taking one of the pastries from the box he turned it over before popping half of it into his mouth and biting. You gulp a bit when you notice just how sharp his canines look, you had never noticed before because his smile fit perfect to show an almost flat area of teeth but when parted the dimensions of them showed distinctly, it was like something out of a vampire novel. The fact that he had picked one of the 'jelly' donuts didn't help your mind's comparison to a vampire as ketchup oozed out. 

Your smile grew at the look of shock on his face, before it fell as he laughed and looked at you. 

“thanks for this pal, who knew humans could be so thoughtful? dunno how you knew, but i'll enjoy these. see ya around.” He said, eyes a light with smug delight as he shut the door on you. 

What  
The  
Fuck

Mayo and ketchup filled donuts were not a thing that someone should ever enjoy! He just ruined the entire prank by actually, uck, enjoying that donut! 

Throwing your hands up into the air as you let out a growl of frustration you stomp back to your room, not hearing his chuckling through the door as you left. 

You would just have to think of something else, something better.


	4. You are made of Bone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I did not forget about this! Dropped a class so I am not as stressed, should have almost all of this finished before August hits, wish me luck.

Liam came back to you pouting on your bed, laptop sat on top of one of your many astrophysics textbooks as you watch Interstellar. The sound was low as you muttered to yourself moodily about the inaccuracies and conceded to the parts that were fairly spot on, as if it was a piece of material to study instead of a sci-fi movie to enjoy. 

“What happened now?” He asks, half amused and half tired.

He knew what it meant when you got into watching a sci-fi movie and picked it apart mercilessly. You were upset and had no other outlet now that Riley had apparently banned you from your only safe haven. 

You glance up at him and grunt before flopping backwards onto your bed and sighing dramatically. Your life was but only a burden, you shouldn't bother him with your issues and yet. He asked.

“I was sabotaged by an evil mastermind of a skeleton, is what happened.” You said, woefully, one arm flung over your eyes as you laid there, peeking after a moment to look at him.

“Explain.” Was his simple reply as he set his backpack down and started to get into his pajamas.

You didn't even move as his shirt flopped over your face and you talked through it, your voice muffled slightly before he took pity on you and picked it up off of you. 

“I tried to spring a fast one on Sans, right? Payback for all those whoopie cushions, but it backfired. Sicko apparently appreciates the taste of mayo and ketchup inside donuts, the weirdo.” You blink a bit as the shirt coves off of and the light slashes across your face rudely. “Now I gotta think of something else to do. I cannot let him get away with pranking me so thoroughly.”

“Why not?” Liam asks as he starts to comb his curly hair carefully, small tufts of black staying with the teeth of the comb as he does so.

“Because Liam, it's a matter of pride. I can't just get pranked and not pay it back in full! This is my honor we're talking about here.” You gripe as you roll over to watch him.

“I didn't realize pranks were a matter of honor.” He deadpanned, glancing over at you with an amused look.

“Of course it is.” You say, pausing the movie and sighing again heavily.”If only I knew what to do.”

You look towards Liam hopefully, eyes practically sparkling with the amount of puppy face you were attempting to inflict upon your poor roommate. 

“Don't look at me like that. I'm not helping you with this. You are on your own.” Liam says as he pats his afro carefully, inspecting the sides before setting his comb down. “Besides I think you have some more important things that need addressing. Like your unpaid tab or the fact that this is the sixth time you've ended up in someone elses' room drunk.”

“Hey, six isn't that bad-” You start to defend your actions.

“This semester. Six times just this past month, seeing as we aren't even halfway through the semester. Pyx...I think you have a pro-” Liam stopped at the sight of you plugging your ears.

“Lalalalalalalalala I cannot hear you I don't know what you're talking about lalalalalal.” You sang out childishly as Liam sighed and shook his head.

“You know, this year is your last year and you'll have your degree in hand. You are one of the smartest people I know and yet you hold yourself back. Why do you do that?” He asked seriously as you looked over at him. “You have so much potential and you throw it all away on booze and being silly when you could have graduated years ago.”

There was a moment of silence as you sat up and then looked away. 

“Because, despite all the awards, the bullshit they throw at me to keep me here working on formulas, I'm not really anyone that important, I'm very easily replaceable.” You mutter, picking at a scab on your ankle.

“Pyx you know that isn't true. What happened to you over the summer break? You've been acting different since-.”

You didn't let him finish.

“I'm going to bed. Early morning classes, you understand.” You cut him off as you roll over, curling around your laptop as you start the movie again and ignore the eyes boring into your back. 

You hear him sigh and rustling as he turns off his side of the room's lights and crawls into bed. 

What did it matter if you drank more than a fish? 

Your grades were fine and you were never late to your morning classes. You attended them all, got the A's necessary to keep a solid 3.9 GPA and you were happy. 

You had Liam and even if he was super busy with all his clubs lately and didn't have time for your movie nights in criticizing old movies and their horrible science, who cares? You were happy just fine, dandy even.

At least, you told yourself you were.


	5. And You Have Got No Flesh

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So. I might just try in the few hours I have before work to finish this entire thing. No promises.

Monday came and went, classes passed by you in a blur as usual. You never paid much attention because honestly, this was all old news to you. You knew the material, you could probably do the homework in your sleep if you wanted. You were here on a free ride because you were supposedly a genius and it looked good on the colleges record to have you around and make you puppet dance with speeches once and a while on whatever you had found out that past semester on your own time.

You came here to be able to use the lab and do your own independent research, that you kept to your self, close to the chest. That work was off the records technically and would be staying that way if you had any say about it.

Regardless, most of the week went by without any sighting of the skeleton that you had on your mind. You pondered on the fact that you could so clearly imagine his face in your head for maybe half a millisecond before your bruised pride shoved that thought aside in favor of trying to come up with a better prank to pull on him. 

Liam was giving you a bit of the cold shoulder after your stunt the other night, going out to his clubs and keeping even more busy than was usual for him, which was a feat in and of itself. 

You could care less.

...

Okay that was a lie. 

It hurt. It hurt and there was no one else to turn to so instead of trying to beg your way into Riley's, which you knew wouldn't work because once Riley made a decision it might as well be carved in stone, so instead you made your way to the cute little bakery down the road. Muffet's Tuffet it was called. The name itself brought a small smirk to your lips at the least as you walked in.

The smirk was short lived though as you spotted a splash of cyan against the otherwise dark purple and black interior of the bakery. 

“Sans.” You say, mostly out of shock because honestly, how often would you run into this guy when a few days ago you didn't even know he existed.

“fourteen something.” He said in return after a moment of staring as if trying to place who you were, that smug looking smile spreading across his skull. 

It made you feel warm, you chalked it up to your blood likely boiling. 

“What are you doing here?” You demand, hands on hips as you squint at him suspiciously.

“what, a skeleton can't go and get some baked goods for himself? i wasn't aware i had to wait for you to come to my door to get a donut.” His smirk was infuriating, he even had the audacity to wink at you. “thanks for those by the way, they really hit the spot.”

You grumbled under your breath and huffed before turning to walk away. 

As you stalked up to the counter where a happy looking, and vaguely familiar, blue rabbit stood you silently cursed Sans and his stupid smile as you debated on what to order. You were so deep in thought, apparently, that you didn't even hear him sneak up behind you until he spoke, breath brushing your ear as he did so. 

“havin' trouble picking somethin' out?”

You will never admit to the name which goes with the noise you made, but a squeal would be close to it. 

His chuckle only proved to make you warmer, the rage building you suspected. 

“hey now, no need to jump outta your skin. was just gunna offer to buy you a donut. ya know. one good deed deserves 'nother and all.” He shrugged lazily and stared at you as you tried to regain some semblance of dignity after your small scare.

Breathing hard out of your nose you stared him down before rolling your eyes and looking away. 

“Fine. I guess, that's cool.” You crossed your arms and snuck a glance towards him. “Thanks.”

“no problem pal, how 'bout one of the glazed, yeah?”

“Sure.” You answered curtly, still not entirely trusting his kindness. 

You took the time while he ordered your food to really look him up and down. Sizing up the enemy, nothing more than that. 

His hoodie was old, you could see some patches where the sleeves and pockets had been meticulously sewn and patched. Quite well to tell the truth, only the slightly different shades of cyan giving it away. His sneakers were ratty and untied, shoe laces unraveling on the ends. The basketball shorts were in pretty good condition in comparison. They looked almost new when paired with the rest. From here you could just barely see that he did in fact wear a skeleton torso graphic t-shirt.

Nerd.

“-somethin'? you in there?” An amused voice broke through your musing and you came back to reality.

Reality being that this skeleton you had been checki- examining, was holding out a delicious looking donut that he had just bought for you. 

“Sorry, lost in thought.” You murmur, taking the donut and standing there for a moment awkwardly before clearing your throat. “Well, thanks.” 

He seemed to look at you for a beat, as if he was going to say something but then shrugged instead. “see you 'round fourteen something.”

You squint at him but don't bother to correct him, instead taking a large bite out of the donut. His smile widened a smidge, which made you even more suspicious but you didn't taste anything wrong with the donut so you continued to eat it, not bothering to even wave goodbye as you left. 

The walk was relaxing and despite your initial bad mood, the good weather and delicious donut made you smile as you stared at the sky and the fluffy white clouds. 

You finished the donut by the time you walked back to your dorm hall and made it up the stairs, passing by Sans' room...which was open?

Taking a peek inside out of pure curiosity you are met with Sans sitting at his desk, doing work it seemed. Confusion comes over you. You hadn't seen him walking back, and you left before him. There was no way he got here before you. 

“enjoy that donut, pal? don't forget to throw out the wrapper, don't want to be a litter bug now do ya?”

You scowl at the pun and take a moment to look at the wrapper, which had a slogan on it printed on it. 

“Donuts Made By Spiders, For Spiders, Of Spiders” … The small black flecks which you had chalked up to sprinkles suddenly flashed through your mind as you gagged softly and power walked to your room to wash out your mouth.

Sans' chuckle echoing down the hall at your hasty retreat.


	6. And Blood Running Through You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Haaa no way am I finishing this all tonight, but maybe by the end of the week who knows not me.
> 
> Have some of reader making shit choices in life.

Liam continued to ignore you for the most part, only saying good morning and good night in response to your attempts to talk to him. Maybe you had pushed him away too much, maybe you should just tell him about your...No. If he was going to play this game then two could play at it. You weren't going to be the first one to give in, not now not ever. 

Instead you threw yourself headfirst into all of your research, making bounds and strides past where you had last left off, ignoring any of the slight mistakes as you tried to immerse yourself in it all. Who cared if you were writing in blue ink instead of black, who cared if you weren't taking down clearer notes, you knew what you were doing. You knew how to recreate the results. You were fine. 

Despite what you told yourself your professor seemed to feel differently. You couldn't think of any other reason why he would call you into his office for a meeting late on a Monday. Sitting in the leather chair that threatened to swallow you whole, you nervously played with a strand of hair and hummed under your breath to try and calm as you waited for your professor to return. He said he was just going to go and fetch someone before he began the meeting and your mind raced in thought of who in the world he was retrieving.

Someone from the Financial office? Someone from the Science department higher up than he was? The Dean? Were you going to get kicked out finally for not graduating yet? The tugging you felt turned out to be your own hand gripping that strand of hair harder than you had meant to. Legs bounced as you tried to just take a deep breath, like that had ever helped you in the past with these...moments you had. You refused to use the name that the many doctors called it. You were fine. Nothing was wrong. You were fine. 

The door swung open before you could descend even further into your own head and your professor strolled in, followed by...

No.

Your nervousness dropped immediately as you caught sight of the same smug smirk that haunted your day to day thoughts. You hadn't seen a single glimpse of him since the donut incident, and here he was. Blue hoodie and all, standing out against the dark grain of the browns and burgundies in the office. 

“What are you doing here?” You demand, not catching the slight surprise on your professor's face. 

“Sarah, you know Sans here?” He asked, gesturing for Sans to sit in the seat next to you.

You felt your lip curl ever so slightly for half a second at the sound of your birth name and pushed the feeling of disgust aside as you nodded stiffly. 

“Good. That should make this a bit easier if you know one another. No awkward first introductions.” He pushed his glasses up his nose and looked at you seriously. “Sarah you are an invaluable member of this department, but I've noticed that some of the paperwork connected to your research has been slipping. As you know your lab is for anyone to use, but I felt that perhaps solitude is affecting your work. Sans here is one of my best students, and I cannot think of a better pair of partners than you two. I wanted to let you know that you two will be sharing the lab now”

Your stomach dropped out from under you and you couldn't find your voice as Sans answered. 

“thank you for this opportunity. i look forward to working with my new lab partner. nice to have a name for the face, sarah.”

That was the final straw. Standing up abruptly you smile a false smile at your professor, forcing out a polite goodbye before leaving, the feeling of tears welling up behind your eyes. You would not cry, you would not let something so small and insignificant as your birth name stop you from continuing your research, and the fact that the name had slipped out from that smug skull had nothing to do with your delicate feelings being hurt.

You were almost all the way to the lab when you felt a boney hand grab your wrist. Your defensive reflex kicks in before any other through and you breath your wrist out of the hold easily, holding it to your chest as you turn to look at your 'attacker'. Your shoulders slump when you see who it is. 

“Hello Papyrus.” You murmur, letting your hand drop as you greet the culinary student that often wandered around in the science department. 

Mostly because he worked at the Fusion Cafe that was located in the center of the Science building, it served all sorts of science themed food, as well as the only human and monster fusion food place on campus, for now. You chatted occasionally whenever you bought food from the Cafe, and admittedly had grown some what attached to the tall skeleton, but not anything beyond acquaintances really. It was hard not to like Papyrus, and all his chatter about his lazy older brother...No way.

Something clicks in your mind, but before you can blurt out anything Papyrus speaks in his loud manner, breaking your concentration.

“ARE YOU QUITE ALRIGHT PYX? YOU LOOK....UPSET.” His look of concern halted the harsh retort on the tip of your tongue. 

No. You wouldn't do that to Papyrus. He wasn't the skeleton you were upset with, and his voice using your chosen name...your correct name. It calmed some of the hurt that hid in your chest. 

“Yes...Thanks for checking Papyrus, I'm fine. Just. Someone used my wrong name and I didn't handle it well.” You answered honestly, surprising yourself a bit in the process. 

Since when were you the one to actually admit to anything??

“OH! WELL I AM SURE THEY DIDN'T MEAN ANY HARM. DID YOU EXPLAIN TO THEM WHY THE NAME IS INCORRECT?” He asked, smiling kindly at you as you both walked to a bench and sat down. 

You looked away and sighed. 

“No...Not really.” You say quietly. 

It was true, the only reason Papyrus knew your birth name was because of the ID card the college forced you to use. It was similar to a debit card and it was the only way to get into some of the buildings on campus. It read your birth name and the dorm hall you belonged to, some numbers and a barcode, and the picture you took freshman year. 

It was an ugly picture.

Regardless, Papyrus had made the mistake of saying your name the first time you ever bought something from him at the Fusion Cafe, and you had been in a rare mood that day to snap immediately and inform him of his mistake. The orange tears that had threatened to fall that day had been all it took for you to apologize and just explain, in a much nicer tone what the issue was. 

From that day on Papyrus made a point of always using your proper name. It did a lot for your mood to hear him shouting it in his jovial way whenever he greeted you. 

“WELL. I DO NOT MEAN TO TELL YOU WHAT TO DO, FAR FROM IT. BUT PERHAPS IF YOU JUST EXPLAINED, THIS PERSON WOULD KNOW BETTER THE NEXT TIME.” He said, cocking his head to the side with a shrewd expression. “I KNOW YOU HAVE A BIT OF A....SHORT TEMPER.” 

You let out a laugh that was cut off when you heard a familiar laugh. Snapping your head to the side you spotted the source of your unending frustration, and were about to tell him to fuck off so you could at least enjoy this moment with what could be a friend. Before you could even open your mouth, Papyrus sprung to his feet and gestured to you. 

“BROTHER! MEET MY FRIEND PYX. PYX, THIS IS MY BROTHER SANS.” Papyrus said, waving back and forth between you two as he 'introduced' you to each other.

Deciding that being snide would be better than outright hostility, you smile a sickly sweet grin and offered your hand. 

“Hello Sans, I'm Pyx, nice to meet you.” Venom was barely hid in your voice as you locked eyes with his dark sockets.

“sup, Pyx. do you have a sibling, 'cause I know someone that looks just like you by the name a sarah.” Sans said lazily, taking your hand in his.

Letting out a yelp you pulled your hand close to your chest, the tingling sensation of the buzzer wearing off quickly as you get to your feet and turn to Papyrus, who seemed to have caught onto the situation rather quickly, if the worried look in his sockets was any indication. 

“I'm leaving now, Papyrus. It was good seeing you. Sans.” You didn't even bother to turn to Sans as you dismissed him entirely with a sneer and went into the lab, locking the doors shut behind you with an audible click.

Perhaps not the most polite thing to do, but the last thing you felt like being was polite.

“Asshole skeleton thinks he's so fucking clever, 'Oh I think you must have a sister, Sarah mmm yes.'” You mockingly mutter under your breath, slumping down and hunching your shoulders up in a mimic of Sans' lazy slouch.

“i hear mockery is the highest form 'a flattery.” 

Whipping around you almost fall over as you come nose to well...nose cavity with Sans. 

“What the fu- how did you even get in here I locked the door.” You looked at him in confusion before your anger boiled over and you threw your hands into the air. “You know what? I don't care. I don't. Just fuck off okay?” 

The tears from before came back and actually managed to trail down your cheeks as you tried to stuff all of your relevant notes into your bag and storm out of the lab. If you couldn't have any peace here, in what you had come to know as your personal sanctuary, then you would just have to make due with your room. Chilly silent treatment from Liam be damned. 

“hey...” Sans started, sounding a bit taken aback by your vitriol. “listen, sar-”

“Shut the fuck up right now before I beat your goddamned skull in with a hammer. My name is Pyx. Pyx, P-Y-X, like the beginning of the work Picture. Pyx. Sarah is dead, Sarah has been dead for years and Sarah. Is not. My name. Got it?” You shout at him, getting up close and personal as you poke your pointer at his sternum, causing him to take a step back. 

It took everything within you to not spit right in his face as you finished stuffing all of your papers into your bag and stormed past him, leaving him in the lab alone, only his thoughts to keep him company. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was a week after you had stopped using the lab as your study space and only went when necessary to use the supplies and machines there. Which thankfully, wasn't horribly often when you had your laptop at hand. Classes went by in a blur as you started to not bother to pay any attention and instead scribbled away into your notebook. The math and formulas were all working, but you kept hitting dead ends on your research, scrapping entire binders worth of data when it didn't produce the results you needed.

Friday arrived and you wanted nothing more than to drink. Get so drunk that you didn't know your own name, didn't know anyone's name, didn't know anything. Drink until you weren't smart anymore so that maybe you could make some illogical decisions. Where you were drunk enough to not reason your way out of a bad idea. Just get absolutely shitfaced.

But to do that you would need a bar. Riley's was not going to happen, but you had overheard a few classmates talking about a new joint that opened up a little way away past the bakery called Grillby's. And you were nothing but a glutton for punishment, so what if it meant you probably wouldn't even make it back to the dorm hall if you got drunk that far away from campus? Not like Liam cares if you go missing at this rate. He could have the room all to himself and be rid of you. Probably would jump for joy at that.

Mission in mind, you left your keys and your card on the desk, purposefully, and made sure you left your phone face down as well next to them. The only thing you took with you was your small pocketknife that fit in the inside of your boot, and a wad of cash from under your mattress. Easily five hundred or so of saved cash that was supposed to go towards textbooks, but who cared about school right now when there was booze to drink, honestly. 

Tonight was a night of 'fuckitall' and you weren't even going to bother swinging as you went down. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Finding Grillby's wasn't hard at all. It was hard to miss the large neon sign with flaming letters. The inside was nice, mostly filled with monsters but that didn't bother you in the slightest. You didn't care who saw at this point really. Tonight was about you. Rubbing pocket with the wad of cash inside, you walked up to the counter and sat down on a stool, waving the bartender down. And man was he hot.

Literally.

It's hard not to be when you are what looked like a fire elemental. 

Smiling a smile with no real happiness behind it you clear your throat before speaking.

“I will take a a tall one of your strongest rum, straight please.” You order, pulling out a few bills and laying them on the counter.

You got the strangest feeling, as if the man of fire was concerned, but regardless of the passing thought he went and retrieved a glass and set it before you before pouring something that was electric green into it. 

“Ooo, monster rum, yeah?” You said with a bit of excitement. 

Monster alcohol hit humans about four times as hard as human alcohol did and was often times much easier on the palate.

Gripping the glass with excitement you downed it in one go, not even gasping as you set the glass down and gestured for another. It burned it's way down, but was smooth and tasted somewhat like melon midori, if you were being honest with yourself. 

Despite the skeptical look you felt like the man was giving you, he poured you another, which you kicked back just as easily. Already though you could feel it begin to spread warmth through your body and it would only be a few minutes until you couldn't taste anything. 

“Dooooon't gimme more a the good stuff, I'll run ya dry! Just gimme a bottle of shitty bottom shelf rum and Imma give ya two hundos an call it even, yeah?” You managed to slur, not wanting to get kicked out of the only other bar in the area after the issue with Riley.

A hesitation, before the man nodded and took your money and walked away, leaving you at the counter as you cradled the bottle of Whaler's. Sure you should be tasting something akin to molasses or burnt sugar, but at the moment all you were chasing was the deep burning sensation at each gulp. 

You didn't even notice when the man came back and set down your change. 

You were only a quarter into the bottle before you heard a familiar voice and groaned. Time to leave. 

“woah there pal, didn't expect to see you here. you doin alright?” He asked, catching you as you attempt to stumble away from him.

“Peachy.” You say, trying to shrug his hands off of your shoulders as you almost fall over.

Again he catches you and you try to push away, causing the both of you to stumble around. 

“Ge'off a me ya jerk.” You mutter as you try to make your way to the door to leave. 

“hold on, seriously pal i need you to relax a moment. youre in no condition to try an walk back right now.” He says calmly in that deep voice of his, but you aren't calmed at all by it, you can only hear the echos of Sarah in your ears. “do ya got your phone on you or anythin? do you remember Liam's number?”

“Fuck Liam! Fuck you. Fuckin fuck everytone. Essept Papyrus. Don't fuck Pappyruss.” You slur as you stumble towards the door.

Sans looked at Grillby hopelessly before sighing and trailing after you when the only thing Grillby gave was a pointed look.

“ya know, if you drank monster liqeur it's gunna burn out of your system in like twenty minutes, right?” He said with amusment as you realized you left the bottle of Whaler's on the counter.

“Yeah, I know that mister I'm so fucking smark. Smart. That's why I was tryin to chug that bottle of rum.” You explained, already feeling a bit of your mind clear, which was not what you wanted. 

At all.

“I hope I drank enough to keep me shitfaced.” You said quietly, sitting down on a park bench with your head in your hands.

“i dunno there pal, i'd say you seem a bit sober already.” Sans commented, sitting next to you on the bench. Flopping down on it really.

“Yeah, I know. Unfortunately. Fuck.” You mutter, leaning down as the queasy feeling of a hangover hits you full force.

You both sat in the quiet for a moment, only the soft sounds of nighttime reaching your ears. You had a passing thought on whether Sans had to breathe or not but quickly dismissed it. You didn't care about anything Sans related. At all. Nope.

Not a single bit.

“Do you need to breathe?” You ask, turning your face slightly to peer at him.

“not really. it seems to freak you humans out though when i don't so its kinda just a habit at this point.” He answered after a moment of staring at you, as if trying to puzzle you out.

You cross your legs under you on the bench and turn to look at him, one hand rubbing at the spot where your pocket knife was sitting. 

“Why are you bothering to try and help me at all right now?” You ask, still feeling buzzed. Thank god for Whaler's.

“...Pap talks about you. didnt realize it was you he was talkin' 'bout to be honest, but he does. youre the first friend he made when he started working at that place.”

“He sees me as a friend?” You ask, somewhat amazed by that fact.

“yeah, he does. so i cant very well let you stumble into a road and die.” He joked softly.

“Why not?” You ask under your breath, not catching the small hitch in his breathing. 

He looked up at the sky and you looked away from him, hugging your arms around yourself tighter. 

“ya know, Pyx, i didnt mean to hurt ya or nothin' with sayin that name. just figured it was better than fourteen somethin', is all.” He said after a moment.

You turned to look at him, and sighed. 

“Papyrus talked to you didn't he?” You ask.

“yeah.” 

“Well. Now you know, I guess.” You mutter into your knees. 

It was silent again before you sighed again and got to your feet, a bit unsteadily. 

“Well this has been fun, but I'm going to go now.” You state to no one in particular before turning and headed down the sidewalk.

“Pyx.”

You turn and look at him standing there, hands in his hoodie pockets. 

“Yes?”

“sorry.”

And before your very eyes, he disappeared.


	7. To Help Protect The Bone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Man has anyone caught onto my really obvious naming scheme for the chapters yet??/

When you finally managed to get back to your room, Liam wasn't there. It was a strange dark outside, just started to get to daybreak, and your mind was entirely clear after downing a few aspirin and cups of water from the water fountain. 

You should apologize. 

Really. Sans was not that bad of a guy, he was just beating you at your own game, which was beyond frustrating, and he had managed to push the one button that really just. 

The one button that was a nuclear reactive one is all. He couldn't have known. No one could know because you didn't tell anyone about the summer. Didn't tell anyone about your loss. About anything. Papyrus only knew a little bit, but he didn't even know the full story, Liam knew even less. 

You came to the brilliant realization that if anyone had been an ass lately, it was you. 

Tears dried on your cheeks as you sat on your bed, waiting for Liam to come home. He was probably at a late night D&D game. It wouldn't be the first time. Getting up from your bed you cleaned up your face and straightened out your clothes. Pulled your desk chair to the center of the room and pulled Liam's as well so they sat facing each other, and waited. 

You didn't even realize you had fallen asleep sitting there until the clicking of the door woke you. 

“Liam!” You said suddenly, with hope.

“...Pyx.” He said softly, watching you with his arms crossed. 

You swallow hard and gesture at the chair. “I...Want to tell you about what happened. Over the summer.”

You waited as he sat down and gathered your thoughts as before you start to recount what happened. 

“You know how I'm named after my mom, Sarah, who died giving birth to me and all. Well. I never really went into it, but my Dad started drinking not long after that. I don't remember a time when he didn't drink. He never hit me or hurt me in any way, far from it. He was always really careful to only get deep into the drinking after he thought I was asleep. He always brought me out to look at the stars, told me that I was his little shining star. It's where I got the name Pyx from, it was our favorite constellation, Pyxis. Told me I was always able to help him get focused on what he needed to do, like a compass. 

My grandmother, my mom's mom. She... she didn't like my Dad from the start and liked him even less when my mom died. Hated him, and always made sure I knew it when I went to visit with her, which was often. She would always criticize me, everything I did wasn't good enough. I wasn't enough like my mom. I looked just like her if you asked anyone, but I acted more like my dad. Always had my eyes to the sky and head in the clouds. I was nothing like my down to earth mother. And my grandmother made sure I knew that everywhere I turned. 

Since I started going to college...Dad started drinking more. Not having me there it...It made it hard for him to find his focus without me. And when I went home this summer... I went out one night and didn't come home at the time I told him. It was stupid, I was just out swimming at the lake. But he got worried. He had been drinking, and drove out to find me. And when he did that he...he. 

He hit a turn too fast. Slammed into a tree and died immediately. I found out when I went to go home and my grandmother was there with the police. They told me everything but wouldn't let me see him. Said he was already identified and there was no need.”

Tears streamed down your face as you kept talking, needing to get this all out, needing to hurt less. 

“My grandmother took care of all the funeral stuff. He was cremated and I spread his ashes on our favorite stargazing spot. Planted a lily and made sure his tombstone has a nautical compass on it. But. My grandmother became furious when she found out that he left everything to me. The house, all of his assets. Specifically put in a note that she was to not touch anything. I made sure that I had copies of it and brought it to the lawyer as soon as possible so that she couldn't do anything about it. 

We had a shouting match, a screaming match honestly. She. She told me I'd never be as good as my mother, that I was a disgrace. I told her that was fine by me because I was and would always be just Pyx, and that Sarah was dead and was staying that way.”

You shook and rubbed at your eyes as you tried to calm down, jumping a little as you felt a hand lay on your shoulder. 

“Pyx...” Liam murmured before pulling you into his arms and holding you as you cried. “I had no idea.”

“I k-know. I shouldn't have just. Kept it a-all in. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry...” You cried as he tried to calm you down.

“Shhhh shh, Pyx no. Pyx don't be. I can't imagine. I should be the one saying sorry.” 

“For w-what? It was my fault for expecting you to just put up with me.” You said, pushing away so you can look him in the eyes.

“And I should have been more understanding. I shouldn't have given you the cold shoulder for that long.” He said, softly.

You let out a choked laugh and smile at him. “I'm jealous of your sisters. They have the best brother in the world.”

“Good luck convincing them of that.” He joked, hugging you close.

The sun rose on you two holding each other.

“You know you're lucky it's the weekend, you look like hell right now.” Liam stated playfully.

“Gee thanks. Ya jerk. Way to make a girl feel special.” You deadpan, the moment broken as you go to clean your face a second time.

“Hey, I'm your friend, it's not my job to make 'a girl feel special' that's something for a dating partner to do.” He said as he put the chairs back in their proper places. 

“Pfffffftftftftftf.” You blow a raspberry at him and roll your eyes. “Yeah okay. Because that's gunna happen anytime soon.”

“Never know. Happens when you least expect it, I hear.” He said as he struggled with his desk, papers dropping to the floor in a heap as he sighed. “I need another organizer.”

“Hey Liam.” You say after a minute once your face is clean and you've thrown out the wipes. 

“Yeah?” He answered.

“I'm thinking I want to sell the house. Everything inside of it except a few things and just. Pick up and go, after I graduate. What do you think?” You say quietly, playing with the ends of your hair.

He turns to look at you and shrugs softly. “I think. That you should do what's best for you right now. Grandmother be damned, pardon my french. You don't have to worry about money for now, but you should have somewhere you can go to when not at school.”

“Yeah...maybe I'll buy a house somewhere where my grandmother would never be caught dead in.”You half joke.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day, or really that day after taking a short power nap, was Sunday...which was one of the days where you would often pop into the lab at some point just for some quiet time but...You should really go. You should. He might be there and if he was you should apologize and try to explain as much as you are comfortable with sharing. You don't want to be a sob story, but he deserves to know enough as to why you were such a humongous dick to him.

Throwing your backpack over your shoulder you start your walk over to the Science building. It was at least a fifteen minute walk, but it was calming in it's own way you supposed as you looked at the petals and leaves that were beginning to fall from the trees and their blossoms. 

It was a beautiful day out really, and not many people were wandering around. So it made it rather easy to hear a familiar and loud voice. 

“I DO NOT WISH TO HAVE ANY TROUBLE...” 

Papyrus? 

Jogging towards the sound you ducked into one of the walkways between two buildings to find a gang of guys encircling your newest friend. Because if Sans says Papyrus sees you as a friend....You weren't going to say no. 

“Listen here freak, we've seen how you're all buddy buddy with some girls of ours when they go to the cafe and we don't like it. So we thought we'd teach you a little bit about what your place is.” One of them said lowly.

“Hey. The fuck you think you're doing to my friend?” You shout immediately, not bothering in the slightest with being polite. 

“AH. PYX DO NOT WORRY. I DO NOT WISH FOR YOU TO GET INVOLVED IF IT CAUSES YOU ISSUE.” Papyrus says, wringing his hands.

“No issue at all, Papyrus. As long as they aren't causing trouble, that is.”

“Hey, this isn't any concern of yours sweet-cheeks. Why don't you just turn around and pretend you saw nothing. It's not worth your time to be bothered with one of these freaks.” One of them says, sliding up closer to you with a predatory grin.

Like hell you were going to let that comment go. Smiling at him with the sickly sweet smile of someone not to be taken lightly you giggle softly and flutter your lashes only long enough for him to get within range. 

That's when you pulled out the pepper spray and got him point blank in his big old lecherous eyes. 

The squealing was rather amusing as he stumbled about and his friends caught him, looking like they were going to jump at you but immediately turned tail and ran off when you brandished the can of pepper spray in their direction.

“Yeah that's right, run you cowards! I already got your faces in mind I'm going to the campus police next time!” You shout after them with a huff before turning to Papyrus.

You stoop down and scoop up the wallet that must have fell out of his pocket and checked the ID card. One James Landen was going to go down, after you handed this into the school police and told them how they harassed you and your friend. 

“GOLLY. I DIDN'T KNOW HUMANS HAD SUCH MARVELOUS CONTRAPTIONS.” Papyrus exclaimed when you got closer and checked him over for any injuries.

“Papyrus....How about when you walk to work you take the walkways that are in plain view, yeah?” You say after realizing with a sigh of relief that he was totally fine. 

“...I SUPPOSE I SEE YOUR POINT. THANK YOU, PYX.” He said after a moment, sounding a bit lost in thought. 

“Hey, cheer up. I'll walk with you to work if you want. You're always at the cafe long before I show up for class, I'm an early bird.” You offer, smiling at him with true happiness as he bounced with excitement. 

“OH THAT SOUNDS LIKE AN EXCELLENT IDEA! AS LONG AS IT IS NO BOTHER, REALLY.” He says, blushing lightly. “I DO NOT WISH TO BE A BOTHER.”

You aw at him softly and shake your head. “You're never a bother Papyrus. How about we head over, I was going to the lab when I heard all the commotion.” You explain.

“OH? I HAVEN'T SEEN YOU IN THE LAB SINCE...WELL...” He trailed off and glanced over at you.

You smile a bit, really it was closer to a grimace. “I'm sorry about that. That's actually why I'm going in. Do you know if your brother is in there today? I wanted to talk to him.”

“ACTUALLY I THINK HE IS STILL SLEEPING AT THE MOMENT. HE DOESN'T OFTEN GET UP UNTIL AT LEAST NOON. BUT HE WILL LIKELY SHOW UP IF YOU STAY IN THERE I SUPPOSE. HE HAS BEEN GOING TO THE LAB EVERY DAY HE CAN.” He says as you both walk the rest of the five minutes to the Science building. 

“Oh?” You ask.

“YES. HE SEEMS TO NOT DO MUCH, EVERY TIME I GO IN HE IS JUST SITTING ON A STOOL SNOOZING.” He says, tapping a finger on his chin in thought. 

The clinking sound was kind of amusing.

You roll your eyes and smile. “The lab is not for napping.”

“THAT'S WHAT I SAID!” He exclaims.


	8. Trials And Tribulations And Tears

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry guys, ive been super busy with doctor appointments almost three times a week or so and ive also been having a really hard time with motivation. So here is a really long chapter in comparison to the rest of the chapters of this fic in way of an apology

Taking a deep breath you stood in front of the lab doors and tried to calm your nerves. It was now or never because if you let all of this stew any longer you'd lose any motivation to fix this. Whatever this was. You had pranked the guy and then blown up at him. Well, specifically he had pranked you first and then you had pranked back... and now he shares your lab. Also you seemed doomed to see each other at random if last night was any indication. 

Regardless, you had to make up for the shit you pulled and the sooner the better.

Pushing the doors open you shook your head, amused by the sight of the skeleton slumped down and sleeping at one of the counters. Coming up behind him you stopped yourself from shaking him awake to really take a good look at him. His smile was soft and small, not at all the smug smirk you were used to seeing on his face. He looked...calm. Secure. It tugged at something in you and you reached out to gently shake his shoulder.

“You do know that this is a lab station, not a nap station.” You say as he jolts awake.

Pulling your hand back you smile meekly at him somewhat startled look.

“Sorry. I wasn't trying to scare you.” You say, shrugging.

“...no problem Pyx. did you need the lab?” He asked, his smile stretching into what you now could pinpoint as something forced.

You gulp and shake your head. 

“I'm actually here because I was looking for you.” You explain.

“lookin' for me? what for?” A brow bone rose and you questioned the malleability of his face for a moment before shaking free of that thought.

“I wanted to apologize. For blowing up at you and everything. You didn't really deserve any of that it was just me being. I ah. I've gone through a hard time and I took it out on you and it was, it was shitty. Could we start over?” You ask as you offer your hand forward.

He looks at you, stares you right in the eyes and you suppress a shiver that threatens to run down your back. Somehow that look felt like he'd just stared straight into your very being, had all of your rights and wrongs laid out between the two of you. But you continued to stand there, hand hanging between you two.

Finally something in his smile turns genuine and he nods. 

“that sounds great, pal.” He says as he takes your hand in his. 

Two things happened at once. One, there was an all too familiar farting noise that rang through the lab. Two, the strange and new sound of vibrating bones joined it right before Sans snatched his hand back in surprise. You winked and laughed a little at his reaction and showed him the simple buzzer hidden in your palm. 

After a beat he started to laugh, a deep bellow of a guffaw that made you smile even wider before you bit it back and shrugged. 

“I thought you might appreciate that.”

“you thought correct. however did you come to that hypothesis, i wonder.” He kidded gently, before gesturing around at the lab. “so ah. did you actually want to use the lab, i can clear out if so i dont want to get in the way.”

“Actually, I do.” You say before catching him by the arm as he went to leave. “But-wait!”

You stared at him and bit your lip before clearing your throat and dropping your hand. 

“I... I want to show you some of my work, if you'd be interested?” You offer softly.

He nodded slowly and gestured for you to lead the way. 

“So the...The main point of my personal research at this time is focused almost entirely on black holes. How they function, what they do, if there is a use that is applicable to them for space travel.” You hunch your shoulders a bit and look around out of habit before leaning in close to Sans and murmuring. “Personally and off the records I've been working on the theory of what is on the other side. You know...what exists inside a black hole.”

“isnt that a bit hard to do without, ya know. being sucked into it to find out?” He says, seriously. 

His fingers fidget a bit as you look at him with a scoff and shake your head. 

“Well yeah, but I think I've started to stumble upon something. It's only been a phenomenon I've noticed in the last two years or so, maybe three, but there are these places in what I consider the very fabric of the universe that seem weak. As if stretched too thin or something. Somehow there are pockets of air where the gravitational pull is measurably higher and I have proposed that it's similar to black holes developmental periods.“ 

You tuck your hair behind your ears and bring out the papers you had in your backpack to show him a select few of your papers. You fought the nervous nausea in your stomach at just letting him see your work. Seeing all of the things you had thrown yourself into over the last few months with a vengeance. These papers were going to possibly be your legacy, be what set you apart. Be amazing. Make you amazing. It was a miracle you were able to not faint dead away with all that you were showing him. 

It was a huge show of trust that you hoped he realized. Sharing all of this work in such plain terms meant he could easily steal it all out from under you. Publish it all before you and get the credit. He was for the most part stock still, smile frozen on his face as he read through your papers quickly. 

“I have yet to figure out what exactly the connections between all of them are, or what has caused them in the past two years, but I'm going to. The only thing I could really say as a singular tying factor is that they always appear in hidden away areas. While good so that no one goes and drives their car through them in a busy street I cannot for the life of me figure out why any that are in this area I find are almost always found in an alleyway.”

“alleyways?” He asked in a flat voice.

“Yeah, it's the strangest thing. I had been working on a machine that could possibly be used in space so that people could detect the Event Horizon from a distance so as to avoid black holes until we know more about them safely and I was just. I hadn't tested it because I didn't have any way to but theoretically it should have worked and I was just walking back from my field with it on for curiosities sake to see if it would do anything and that's when I found the first of the abnormalities.”

“oh?” He said hoarsely. 

Was he coming down with something? Can skeletons even get the flu? Shaking your head you returned back to the thought you had had and continued explaining.

“I've taken to just calling them Mini's for lack of a better term. Since then I haven't really gone out to do a lot of field work because I got as much data as I could that first year. There was only two of them at any given time and they would fade after about a week or two. Since then I've just been going off of my formulas before trying to seek them out like a madwoman combing the alleyways with some strange machine in my hands.”

Looking up at him you noticed he was sweating a bit and grimaced a bit. The lab was always a bit stuffy this early, the air conditioning not kicking in until around noon often. You were used to it but perhaps he wasn't. Did skeletons get warm? Better yet, how the hell was he sweating anyways without skin and organs. Shaking yourself out of it you took your papers back and stashed them again before taking pity on him. 

“You look like you need some fresh air. Want a smoothie from the cafe? It's on me.” You offer as he looks up at you like a deer in headlights.

“y-yeah im good. smoothie sounds great. i can cover it though pal.” He protests weakly.

“Don't worry about it, I got it. I'm sure Papyrus will be overjoyed to see us.” You assured.

You both walked the short distance to the cafe and quickly learned just how right you were. Papyrus was beyond himself in excitement with getting to serve both of you. 

“IT IS SO NICE TO SEE MY FAVORITE BROTHER AND ONE OF MY FAVORITE HUMANS OUT ON A FRIENDLY DATE.” He shouted when you finally paid for the banana strawberry smoothie and ….ketchup iced drink?

You had a flashback to the failed donuts and sighed heavily before shaking your head at Papyrus frantically. 

“Paps im your only brother.” 

“CORRECT.” Papyrus said with some mischievousness in his gaze. Turning to your frantic waving, he cocks his head curiously. “WHAT IS WRONG PYX?”

“T-this isn't a date Papyrus!” You protest, cheeks burning as you tried not to melt into an embarrassed puddle on the ground. 

“BUT YOU BOUGHT SMOOTHIES AND BOTH LIKE EACH OTHER, NO?” He asked curiously as he leaned on the counter. 

You sputter and hide your face in your smoothie for a moment to try and cool your cheeks. Thankfully Sans comes to your rescue. 

“Paps, it's not a date. Pyx here is just helping me ketchup on some science stuff from the lab.” He said with a grin as Papyrus immediately screeched in dismay. “Pyx is just being ice.”

Motioning for you to run while you could from the situation you scooted out of the cafe as Sans continued to roll pun after pun at his increasingly loud brother. Your face burning the whole way even as you drank your smoothie in record time, cringing when the brain freeze crept into your skull form your haste. 

Letting the door shut a bit hard behind you once you reach your room you thrown yourself facedown onto your bed and let out a soft scream. 

“Am I to take this as a good sign? All go well with your chat with Sans?” Liam asked with a grin as he watches you flail.

Your answer was muffled in the blankets but it was a wordless jumble of sounds regardless so he wasn't missing out on anything. Your tone was clear though, you were embarrassed.

“So don't shoot me or anything over this. But I recognize this particular brand of kicking and screaming you are doing at the moment.” Liam starts.

You lift your head to look at him with a warning on your face. “Don't you dare. Don't you even think it, don't you do it. Don't!” 

“I think you have more than just your pride fueling your little prank escapades.” He said simply, one eyebrow elegantly raised at you. 

“Lies. And slander. All of the lies and slander, how dare you.” You say, throwing a pillow at him, which he easily catches and throws back at you.

It lands on your face. 

It's silent for a time and you finally take the pillow off and stare at your ceiling before speaking.

“I think I just. Respect him. And I'd like to be friends? I don't know how you do all the things you do. Clubs and leading and shit. I don't know how to do the talky talky thing.” You say after a beat.

It was true that you couldn't stop thinking about ways to prank Sans, and that you had gone out of your way to make up with him, which was something you didn't do for anyone that wasn't a friend but. You really don't know him, beyond the bare basics. You didn't know how to even go about trying to make small talk, all you knew was science and snark.

“You could always attempt to actually get to know him. Ask him his favorite color.” Liam said dryly.

“Hey. Snark is my thing, don't you use my own powers against me.” You say, sitting up with a glare.

He sighs at you, crossing his arms as he watches your rueful expression. “Who knows, maybe if you get to know Sans as a friend you'll get out more often. That doesn't include drinking that is.”

You narrowed your eyes and glared but you had to admit he was probably right. Besides. You should at least try and make friends with him, you are going to be sharing a lab and you were trying to be friends with his brother, that's how you got more friends right? By networking basically? You could do this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You couldn't do this.

It was a week later of meeting up in the lab and trading tidbits of each others work with each other, of passing in the hallways occasionally and awkwardly waving hello to each other. A week where you had, after being pushed by Liam to do so, knocked on Sans door and offered to study together for the upcoming midterm. A week of you looking at this skeleton, of talking and of joking with. Of getting closer.

You could remember it so clearly, sitting on his bed in his room. You hadn't thought he would take you up on it immediately, to study together. That he'd make plans to go and meet up in the library or something like that, or even just agree to show up at the lab at the same time. But instead he had stepped aside and waved you inside, motioning for you to sit on his bed. Throwing his textbook at you he had pulled his chair up and sat before you with a challenging grin. 

“alright, quiz me.” He demanded.

“Okay...” You turned to a random page and started to go through the glossary for that chapter, just to warm him up. 

You really hadn't been prepared to study right this moment, your mind wasn't in it as you rambled off the chapter questions next, it was thoughtless, just as much as his answers were. It was like two robots just spitting data back and forth, before you flipped the page to somewhere in the middle and looked up at him. 

“What's your last name?” 

He had looked at you for a moment before answering just as easily as before. 

“Snowdin.”

You narrowed your eyes at him. “Is that a pun?” 

“yes and no. yes, its a pun, but no in that its actually the name of my hometown. in the underground.” He explained. “yours?”

“Seilmann.” You said, looking down at the book and tracing random shapes with your fingertip as if searching for the next question. “What do you like better, dawn or dusk?” 

“thats a hard one. dusk, i think. sunrise is like nothing in the underground but...sundown, sundown you get to see the first hints of stars.” He said, a genuine smile for once on his face as you stared out his window at the night sky.

“I'd have to agree. I love the night sky. The constellations. The coolness of the night air.”

You had locked gazes with him when he glanced back at you, and broken it by looking back to the textbook and asking the proper questions again. He had looked like he wanted to say something, but instead just continued the quizzing session until you had excused yourself and gone back to your room. 

Yet you just couldn't talk like a normal person. You couldn't just open your mouth and ask him what his favorite color was in normal day to day conversation, though you had a hunch it was likely cyan. Or what his favorite food was, though again you had a sneaking suspicion that anything covered with ketchup would technically be his favorite. All you could do was talk to him more about your own work. Slip a question in between sentences about science, the only time you felt comfortable enough to spit out the words, before retreating back into the realm you felt most at home.

You knew most of his astrophysics focus was on stars and something about the death and birth of them and how they went in cycles, but it wasn't something that you really specialized in. You could however sit for hours and listen to him explain it all to you. It was memorizing how he would just go on a tirade about it all, how animated and energetic he got as he gesticulated and drew on the whiteboards to illustrate his points. He was brilliant, like the stars that he so obviously loved.

But you didn't know him still, you felt. There was some sort of distance between you two and you chalked it up to the fact you hadn't known each other long. It had taken you almost an entire semester to become friends with Liam at first, so you should know better. Shouldn't get disappointing that you aren't closer. And yet you were. You were so impatient to get to a similar place that you were with Papyrus at this point. 

Just seeing Papyrus once a day at the very least when you walked him to the cafe and the fifteen minute talks you had as you strolled to your destination. That was enough for you to know so much about Papyrus, his favorite food being spaghetti, his color orange, his brother was his best friend, though a woman named Undyne was a close second. He used to want to be a royal guard, but because that wasn't necessary on the surface he had gotten into culinary instead. You had found out quickly how much he loved riddles and mental exercises, so you had taken to cutting the daily Sudoku out of the paper and giving them to him to finish. He always thanked you with a spinning hug and you were just happy to make him so happy as well. 

It was during one of those walks, that Sans had come up in conversation. Rather abruptly, it felt to you. Specifically what you thought of him.

“I JUST AM CURIOUS, DEAR FRIEND. WHAT EXACTLY ARE YOUR THOUGHTS OF MY BROTHER, SANS?” He shouted after a stretch of silence.

“Um. Well. He's smart, and pretty cool, I guess? Why do you ask?” You asked, feeling nervous for some reason you couldn't place.

“OH NO REASON, NO REASON AT ALL. NOT AS IF I AM ASKING FOR ANYONE'S BENEFIT BUT MY OWN.” He responded, eyes looking shifty.

“Well, I mean. I don't know him really well, I guess is the most I can say. I suppose I'd like to get to know him better, but I don't have much more to tell you than that.” You admitted, before shrugging. “He can be cute sometimes.”

You weren't quite sure why you had admitted to that, of all things, but it was out in the air and hanging between you two before you could possibly clamp your big mouth shut. Immediately turning a dark red you clapped your hands to your mouth and looked up at Papyrus, who was positively beaming at you, it was blinding almost. 

“IS THAT SO?” 

“You cannot tell a soul I ever said that. That was said in confidence!” You said quickly.

“I WILL NOT REVEAL YOUR THOUGHTS, DEAR FRIEND.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You were so busy thinking over your words and what in the world possessed you to say that to Papyrus that you ran into the chest of someone as you made your way down the walkway back to your room after dropping Papyrus off at work. Your iced tea was short lived as it tumbled to the ground, splattering the familiar pathway.

Unfortunately the face of the man you ran into was familiar as well. 

“Think you're so clever, don't you you bitch? Think you'll always get away with whatever you want and never get payback, huh?” He spat into your face as you backed up into the brick wall behind you.

He was likely not too happy about the fact that you had turned his ID into the police in short order, you hadn't even thought about him since you last saw him. You hadn't needed to, you thought it was done and over with.

That can from before was a single time use, you didn't have more on you. You hadn't thought you would need more so soon. You were up shits creek with absolutely no paddle and the man cornering you knew it. 

“Lay a hand on me and I'll make sure the campus police come straight to you. You should just walk away and I'll think about pretending this never happened.” You said lowly, trying to find some sort of way out of this situation. “I'll call for help!”

“Go ahead, call out for your disgusting skeleton boyfriend. Get him to come to your rescue so I can dust him.” He sneered.

Your blood ran cold at the thought, at the threat, but at the same time you couldn't help the rage that was building up inside of you. “You so much as look at Papyrus and I'll make sure you never get our of jail.”

He smirked at you, and you headbutt his chin with your forehead to try and get away, maybe knock his jaw around while you were at it if you could manage. You stumbled away from him, but didn't get far before you felt the back of your jacket get yanked on, sending you crashing back into the wall once more, the wind wheezing out of your lungs all at once.

It was just you and him here, no witnesses unfortunately and no mace. You didn't have any other weapons on you and honestly you were weak. You were a scientist, you didn't do the punchy punch thing you did the thinky think thing. Unfortunately your brain stalled out the second that he pulled back his arm and slammed his fist into your face, knocking you down onto the ground. 

Your vision swam as you felt the back of your shirt tug and choke you out. He lifted you off the ground only to slam his knee into your nose. The taste of blood trailed down your throat and you coughed, splattering his face with it as he pulled you up to get a look at his handy work. 

“Not so high and mighty now, are you you filthy monster fucker?”

You groaned softly before hocking a large loogie of snot and blood straight into his face. 

“Any monster... I've met is better than your sorry excuse of existence.” You manage to choke out after he drops you to the ground.

Really you just didn't know when to quit.

He growls and wipes the nasty mass out of his face and rears one leg back. His steel toed boot cracks against a rib and you think you feel it snap under the pressure as you gasp and scream wordlessly in pain. He spits on you and gets ready to start kicking you again, this time aiming for your face. Closing your eyes you curl in on yourself and try to brace yourself as best as you can for the impact but it never comes.

Instead what feels like a heaviness in the air, as if it suddenly became humid, descends upon you. His confused sound of alarm and a strange almost clicking noise is all you hear as you keep your eyes closed you focus on breathing deeply, the heaviness making it hard to do so properly.

“seems like you really want to h a v e a b a d t i m e p a l.” A voice you don't even recognize, it's so guttural and menacing it causes a shiver to rack through your beaten body.

You whimper from the pain of it and cry, struggling to breathe as the heaviness presses down on you more.

A sickening snap echoes through the air, like that of a branch cracking but wetter and a whimper of pain that is not your own can be heard clearly before the heaviness suddenly lifted and you felt yourself get tugged to your feet. 

It was then that you finally opened your eyes, only to be startled by Sans' face being inches from your own.

“S-ans?” You manage to garble out, it felt like a tooth might have got knocked loose. 

“good you can talk. im gunna have you stick with Paps back at the cafe while i take care of this guy alright?”

“What...are you going to-?”

“just gunna take out the trash, but you need to see a healer alright?” He said, as you start to sway. “woah there, stay with me.”

You try to say something but instead pitch to the side and everything is blanketed in blackness.


	9. Everyone Thinks I'm Weird

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long, only four more chapters until the close of this story guys!! It's been a ride and I'm so happy you all have liked this as much as you have. This is only my first year into fanfic-ing and I'm just happy to be able to write, let alone that you all like it just as much!
> 
> As of right now the projected final date for this story will be Beginning to Mid August, so watch me attempt to actually meet this self imposed deadline!

When you woke up you were in your bed. Liam was sitting on his chair next to you, and you groaned softly. He jumped to his feet and got you a glass of water which you drank greedily before flopping back down again. 

“What time is it?” You ask.

“Around noon, you were out for about three hours. What the hell happened Pyx?” He demanded to know.

“Some motherfucker who has a problem with monsters cornered me.” You say before sighing and sitting back up again, feeling restless. “Wait. Where's Sans?”

“To be honest I'm not very sure. He showed up suddenly out of no where with you in his arms and handed you over before straight up disappearing. Must move faster than I thought possible, I literally turned and he was out of here.” Liam stretched as he took back the glass and set it on his desk. “Do you know the guys name? This has to be reported, you have a broken nose and a nasty black eye.”

You touch your ribs carefully but other than a slight soreness it didn't hurt. Not nearly enough to have a broken rib like you thought you had. Did you just imagine that? No, you couldn't have, you felt it snap. What was it that Sans had said before you passed out? Something about Papyrus and a healer? Reaching up you gingerly touch your nose and hiss, the pain shooting through your face and making you cringe. 

“I already reported him once. James Landen. I guess the shiner is a good thing though, in a way. Proof of what happened, they have to take it more seriously this time around.” You murmured as you swung your legs around and stood. “I'm going to go find Sans, I've got some questions for him.”

Before Liam could even respond to that there was a knocking at the door. Jumping to open it, Liam stands aside to let Papyrus through. He had to duck to get in. His face seemed to be lightly stained with some sort of orange, like tear trails.

“PYX, I HOPE YOU ARE NOT MAD AT THE FACT I COULDN'T DO MORE FOR YOUR INJURIES. I MANAGED TO FIX THE RIB BECAUSE I AM USED TO BONE BUT...THE FLESHY PARTS I AM. I AM NOT PROFICIENT IN AS OF YET.” He cried as he hugged you carefully, not lifting and spinning as was usual.

“You healed me?” You asked.

“THAT I DID. I WAS SO WORRIED, SANS SAID IT WAS AN EMERGENCY AND I WALKED OUT OF WORK TO HELP. ARE YOU FEELING ALRIGHT?” 

“I've been better, but thank you. A broken nose is nothing, it will be fine after I set it...Actually Liam. You're the one with the first aid credentials. Set my nose?” You say, turning to your roommate.

“Hey, no, no. I haven't gotten that renewed in like, a year. I'm not qualified, I am not doing that I am-” He stops in the middle of his protest as you puppy dog eye him and stick out a lip.

Sighing he lets his shoulders and head slump before waving you closer. 

“Fine, but if I screw up your nose it's not my fault that they'll have to re-break it to set it properly.”

“Duly noted. Just do it quick before I lose my nerve.” You say.

Quickly, and with a slight grimace on his face Liam takes hold of your nose and after a countdown to one from three, sets it back into place with a nasty sounding crack. You whimper only a tiny bit and screw up your face, but the nose is now straight once more.

“Let me go get some ice from the help desk. I'll be right back.” He says, slipping past Papyrus to jog down the stairwell. 

Papyrus looks pale, if possible for a skeleton, and you flash him a small smile as you sit back on your bed. 

“So, where is Sans anyways?” You ask, blowing your nose and gagging a tiny bit at the blood that came out.

“I AM NOT ENTIRELY SURE, TO TELL THE TRUTH. HE LEFT WITH YOU AFTER YOUR RIB WAS HEALED AND I HAVEN'T SEEN HIM SINCE. I'M SURE HE WILL TURN UP SOON, I CANNOT SEE HIM NOT CHECKING BACK TO MAKE SURE YOU ARE OKAY.” He assures you.

You blow a soft raspberry at that and roll your eyes. 

“Yeah, because I'm such an important person in his life. He's probably just turning that jerk into the police and then taking a nap after having to put up with this all.” You say, missing the look on Papyrus' face.

“YOU DON'T ACTUALLY THINK THAT DO YOU? SANS THINKS OF YOU AS A FRIEND AS MUCH AS I DO!” He protests.

“Pap, I think that's sweet of you, but I don't really think Sans cares about me specifically that much-” You were cut there was a strange heaviness in the air and a small noise as if your ears had popped caught your attention.

Turning around you were face to face with Sans, who was looking somewhere between relieved and dead tired as he sat on the bed besides you. 

Blinking you open your mouth and close it much like a gaping fish before finding your voice. “Okay I am not drunk this time, how in the world did you do that?”

“do what?” He asked with a sly grin.

You narrowed your eyes at him and blew into the tissue again before speaking. “You know exactly what I mean. You were not on my bed half a second ago.”

“magic.” He said with spirit fingers wiggling in your face. 

Huff you make the I'm watching you gesture before sighing. “I will get more of an explanation out of you eventually. For now, I have some slightly different questions for you.”

He seemed to suddenly begin sweating, and looked over your shoulder to Papyrus in some silent plea. 

“OH NO BROTHER, I AM NOT GOING TO INTERUPT THIS. YOU ARE GOING TO SPEAK TO PYX. SHE DESERVES TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED. I AM GOING TO GO FIND LIAM AND ASSIST HIM IN PROQURING ICE FOR HER INJURIES.” And with that Papyrus bounded out the door and down the hall away from them, leaving behind a painfully awkward silence.

“So.” You say after staring at him as he stared at your wall intently. “What did you do?” 

“gunna have'ta be more specific than that pal.” He said quickly, glancing at you quickly before looking away again, hands fidgeting in his lap.

You looked at his slender fingers and felt the want to hold them still, but resisted the urge. 

“I mean, what did you do to that guy? You were the one that stopped him, I can only assume, and you were the one to get me to Papyrus. So again I ask. What did you do?” You press, leaning forward a bit as you turn towards him to stare intently into his eye sockets. 

The lights in his eyes seemed to dim slightly before he sighed heavily and rubbed at his face, a soft clinking noise like that of china being the only noise in the room for a moment. 

“listen. its not legal what i did. so y dont want to tell you.” You go to interrupt and he shakes his head quickly, continuing. “not right now. later on when no one is going to question you. uf you dont know, you dont have to lie, alright? just hold on until after the police talk to you about that … man. then ill tell you everything.” 

You frowned and stared at him for a tense moment before nodding. His hands kept wringing in his lap and you reached over, putting one hand over his and smiling at him. That look of surprise made you want to laugh but instead you just held onto his hand and ran your thumb over his bones. 

“Relax. I'm not going to sell you out or anything. And I won't push it, right now. I will be coming after you for answers after all this is settled and cleared away, but for now I'm just going to tell the truth. My eyes were closed throughout whatever it was you did because I was busy trying not to get my face kicked in.” 

His eyes dimmed a bit as you spoke and his thumb caught yours, as he glanced down at your hands. You went to tug yours away, thinking maybe he was bothered by it but he held fast onto your hand and traced one phalange along your palm to your wrist. 

“humans are so soft...fragile. how do you all manage to stay strong through it all?” He murmured, as if almost to himself.

“Determination to survive against all the odds, I guess.” You say. “I mean, all humans do most of the time is survive. Premature babies grow to be healthy and old, people who get entire limbs blown or cut or crushed off make replacements and keep on trucking. You can try to keep us down but we keep finding loop holes and ways to push forward despite it all.” 

Sans seemed like he was about to say something, but a clearing of a throat at the door made you startle, snatching your hand away from his with a deep blush as Liam and Papyrus come back inside, Liam tossing you the ice pack with a knowing smirk. Glaring a warning at him you carefully set the pack against your face and almost cry from how much it stung. 

“Thanks.” You say, before you yawn and shake your head. 

“I THINK SANS AND I SHOULD BE ON OUR WAY FOR NOW, LET YOU REST.” Papyrus said as you struggled to keep back another yawn. “HEALING MAGIC CAN MAKE ONE VERY SLEEPY, WE'LL COME BACK TOMORROW TO SEE HOW YOU ARE.”

“Thank Pap. I'll make sure to keep walking with you to work, and make sure to pick myself up some more pepper spray when I get a moment.” You say as you curl up on your bed, Sans getting up as you do so.

“rest well Pyx, try not to get into anymore alleyway brawls.” He drawled, winking at you as he walked past.

You grumbled softly at Liams amused look as you turned a dark red, and watched the two of them leave.

“Bye Paps, bye Sans. See you around.” You call as they shut the door behind them.

There was a moment of silence as you snuggled into your bed, carefully propping your pillows so the ice pack stayed where it should. 

“So. I'm gone all of ten minutes and come back to you holding hands-” He is cut off by your throw pillow flying through the air and smacking him in the face.

“We shall not speak of it.” You say lowly as you roll over and pout, blankets pulled over your head to hide your embarrassment.

He laughs softly at you as you settle down and fall asleep.


	10. You've got me standing in an awkward position

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WO THAT TOOK A WHILE IM SO SORRY
> 
> but yeah this fic right here? the one you reading? it gunna end this month. So hold on for the ride I suppose because I've only got two more chapters to write and they are likely going to be the normal length of about 2000-4000 instead of like this one which is like 7000 something.
> 
> Anyways enjoy Pyx and some bullshit right on up.

They did in fact come by bright and early the next day, which was nice. Liam had to go out for another one of his clubs, fencing this time you think, so it was just you and the two skeleton brothers. It was after ten full minutes of Papyrus loudly fussing over you and plumping your pillows so much they probably could have flown away with a stiff enough breeze that you decided you may as well ask the burning questions that had been in your mind. 

“So. Obviously monsters have magic and all and stuff, I've even read some of the scientific papers about Souls and whatnot, but like. What kinds of magic are there? You healed me, so there is medicinal magic at the very least but like, what else?” You ask, tucking your hair behind your ears so you can look back and forth between the two brothers.

“WELL, THERE IS THE HEALING YES, WHICH IS A TYPE OF GREEN MAGIC.” Papyrus started.

“Green?” You ask.

“yeah. magic can be categorized into seven different types. red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and purple.” Sans explained.

“So the rainbow. What do the colors mean?” You ask as you scoot to the side and hug a pillow to your chest.

“WELL, MONSTERS CAN DO ANY COLOR MAGIC BUT MOST OF THE TIME THEY ARE MOST SKILLED IN THE COLOR THAT IS THE SAME AS THEIR SOULS CORE COLOR.” Papyrus said.

“Core color?”

“YES WELL, MONSTER SOULS LOOK WHITE TO HUMANS. MONSTERS CAN SEE THE CORE COLOR EASILY BUT HUMANS SEEM TO ONLY BE ABLE TO SEE IT WHEN MAGIC IS BEING USED.” 

“Okay...”

“as for what the colors mean, red is determination, orange is courage, yellow is justice, green is kindness, blue is patience, indigo is integrity, and purple is perseverance.” Sans said, as he kicked one slippered foot up onto your desk and smiled lazily.

The chair he was seated in was precariously tipped but you didn't feel the need to warn him. 

“Okay, but what does that mean? That just sounds like a mood ring cheat sheet more than anything.” You deadpan.

“WELL! I DON'T THINK I'VE EVER HEARD OF A MONSTER WITH A RED SOUL TO BE ENTIRELY HONEST. I'M NOT SURE WHAT MAGIC WOULD HAPPEN WITH THAT. BUT AN ORANGE SOUL, SUCH AS MYSELF CAN USE KINETIC ENERGY. SANS IS BETTER AT EXPLAINING HOW IT WORKS IN SCIENTIFIC TERMS. IT IS JUST SECOND NATURE TO ME.”

“Like trying to explain how to ride a bike I guess for you guys. That's okay I'll get Sans to spill some other time if it's really lengthy.” You say with a wink towards the skeleton who was watching you with one socket. 

His chair almost fell back onto the floor but Papyrus put out a steadying hand and scolded him softly for not sitting in it properly. You just laughed to yourself at the antics. A thought hit you suddenly and you snapped your fingers.

“If monsters can see the colors of Souls and everything, what color is mine? There is all sorts of like, personality tests and stuff online but I take about as much stock in those as I do my daily horoscope app. Can I see it?” 

Sans turned a soft light blue and pulled his hood up with a nervous grin before shrugging. Papyrus had the decency to at least laugh it off instead. 

“DEAR PYX THAT IS A BIT OF A PERSONAL QUESTION TO ASK! MONSTERS DON'T TAKE OUT THEIR SOULS UNLESS FIGHTING IN A CONFRONTATION OR...WELL. WHEN TWO MONSTERS LOVE EACH OTHER VERY MUCH THEY-”

“Woah! No, no no that is more than okay I am picking up what you are putting down no need.” You interrupt with a bright red face, tittering nervously at the way the conversation had veered into uncharted territory you hadn't wanted it to. “How about you just tell me what the other color magic does?”

“OF COURSE! YELLOW IS JUSTICE, AND...”

It was at least three hours later by the time Papyrus had gone over all of the color magic teaching material that he remembered from his baby bones schooling time in the underground. You wondered shortly about what color soul Sans must have, and what kind of magic he could do. Papyrus did say that the traits were supposed to be a good indication of the color of a person, but what was Sans?

You didn't even know what yours could possibly be. You weren't green, you were a bit too much of a bitch for that one. Not blue, thinking about it really you knew yourself enough to know you were biased on this. You would just have to deal with never knowing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You were healed up fairly well by the next day when you were called into the campus police building to give a statement. You identified James by name and even by face once they pulled up his information on the computer to double check. You made sure to show them the pictures you had so smartly taken to show how bad the black eye had been, and Liam had put in a statement earlier about the broken nose. 

It was emotionally draining, but you just felt empty by the end of it. Not even upset just tired and beyond the point of caring. When you left the building and made your way off campus you only had one thought in mind. Booze. And a lot of it.

After the last time at Grillby's you figured picking up a bottle at the liquor store would just be the best bet and to drink it in a large opaque water bottle you had was good enough. Straight tequila sounded wonderful. You last remember wandering around in the park near the edge of town and staring up at the night sky while laying on a park bench. After that it's all black.

You weren't very sure how you ended up back in your bed, but assumed you had by some drunken grace managed to stumble your way back home while blacked out. How you managed to also get your shoes off and tucked into bed was up in the air but it wouldn't be the first time Liam had taken care of you so maybe he had done that before headed out to his own things. 

You didn't even notice the deflated whoopie cushion under your body. It dropped down the gap between the mattress and the wall before you could even process it. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Walking Papyrus to work made you only vaguely paranoid now. You had a new can of pepper spray, and while you had been at the shop at the mall you often picked self defense stuff at you also grabbed yourself a key chain that doubled as a knuckle duster. It was plastic, so on the very line of what was legal. But it made you feel a tiny bit better. There had been a few different options, all in different shades of colors. Cats, owls, bulldogs and skeleton skulls with what looked like thorn crowns had been the different options, with the eye holes or sockets being where you stuck your fingers through. 

Eventually you had decided on a blue skeleton. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was a long day. That was the reason for it this time at least. It was always something. Long day, short day, good day and celebration, bad day and cheering up. Sometimes you did it for the hell of it. Sometimes you did it because you felt like someone out to sea with no compass and only a bottle as company. Sometimes Liam was out just too long and you couldn't stand the silence on its own. Sometimes you just didn't care anymore.

Sometimes you cared too much and didn't want to anymore.

Today it was just a long day. You were sat in your room. Door wide open because your room was a wet room anyways, both Liam and you were well over 21. To see you seated at your desk chair with an open half empty bottle of spiced rum was not odd. The tentacles which wrapped artfully around it almost looked like they were swirling by the time you were an hour into it. 

Staring up at your ceiling you just sighed. Stars couldn't be seen half as well out in this college town, with all it's light pollution and tall towering buildings. The closest observatory was well over an hour away. Your fathers grave was even further. The spot that was both of yours just as far. No. The only stars you saw while at school was through the lens of a telescope, or in textbooks. 

Liam was kind enough to screw the top back onto the rum when he returned. He was also smart enough to not comment on the tear stains on your pillow when you both got up for breakfast the following morning. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Pap, what do you do when it's summer time?”

“MOSTLY I TRAIN WITH MY BEST FRIEND UNDYNE AND VISIT HER FOR MOVIE NIGHTS WITH HER WIFE ALPHYS. OBVIOUSLY I CONTINUE TO HONE MY CULINARY SKILLS BY MAKING BREAKFAST LUNCH AND DINNER FOR SANS AND MYSELF. OCCASIONALLY I GET TO SEE MY GOOD FRIEND FRISK.” He says as he hands you your smoothie.

Spinach with lots and lots of blueberries and banana in it. It was supposed to be healthy but the color just made you think of algae. Regardless you drank it enthusiastically. You were always trying out the new combinations Papyrus came up with or made mistakenly so he wouldn't get in trouble at work. Surprisingly it wasn't half bad. Taking another sip you flashed him a thumbs up before clearing your throat.

“Do you think maybe it would be cool for me to come visit over the summer? I haven't really considered what I'm going to do now that I'm graduating this year and I mean...With my dad gone and everything I just...” You trailed off, mind wandering in a bad direction before Papyrus clapped his hands and jolted you out of it with a hug. 

“WHY OF COURSE PYX! SANS AND I WOULD LOVE FOR YOU TO VISIT US DURING THE SUMMER TIME. WE WILL HAVE SO MANY SLUMBER PARTIES AND MOVIE MARATHONS IT WILL BE MARVELOUS!” He shrieked in excitement, if he grinned any harder you feared his skull would actually crack. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just because you and Sans were hanging out one a semi more regular basis and were becoming science buddies didn't mean you had forgotten about your honor. 

Because of this fact, it was with a sickly sweet grin on your face that you went over to Sans' room with your backpack slung over your shoulder too casually and asked to just chill for a bit. Under the premise that Liam was gone and you left your keys in your room. Which, to be fair, was something you were somewhat known for doing regardless. The fact that you had purposefully left them in there this time around was not to be mentioned. 

Sans let you in with a shrug and simple easy going smile, and you almost felt bad about your plan before you rationalized that it was all in good fun. 

“so how has your personal research been comin'?” He asked, shuffling some of his wild piles of paper out of the way so you had a free space at his desk to set your stuff. 

“Oh you know how it can be. One step forward, two steps back and then a bunch of hopscotch thrown in for the fun of it. I keep getting this close to figuring out a formula that is consistent and then some small part of the data I didn't notice slip through the cracks resurfaces and cuts my train of thought right down. Maybe I should look at getting a secretary.” You grumble, before sitting at his desk and twirling around twice.

“im sure youll get it Pyx. just gotta keep at it, yeah?” He reassures you.

“Yeah, I know. That's half the fun of it I suppose. Working and then restarting and working at it again. I'm not giving up by any stretch of the imagination. Anyways. How have you been?”

“good, Pap had a bit of a fit because he realized ive been eating ramen so he went on a rampage and threw out all my snacks.” He said with a rueful grin.

“No shit! Do you have anything left after that?” You ask incredulously. 

You knew how much of a health nut Papyrus could be as of late. Sans shook his head.

“Well that won't do. I'll have to order in some asian fusion stuff. I know just the place if you are cool with it? It's got Chinese and Japanese stuff.” You offer.

He seemed a bit surprised at that but nodded after a bit. 

“sounds good. i really like that one kind, the sweet and sour chicken.” He said, almost sounding actually enthused about something beyond his own brother and science.

“Heh, alright. I guess I can share, that's my favorite, but I think I'll also get myself some money bags and a seaweed salad while I'm at it, my treat.” You say as you start tapping away at your phone. 

Your favorite aspect of the fusion place you were ordering from was that it was text friendly, and you knew one of the delivery guys pretty well from tutoring so it wasn't hard to get what you wanted without having to call.

“Should be here in like, twenty minutes or so. Must not be super busy right now. Do you mind being the one to go all the way down and picking up the bags though? I'll give you the cash for the tip, everything's already on one of my cards I have set up with them.”

“sure. you sure they'll hand it over to me though when you were the one that ordered?” He asks.

“Sans, I'm pretty sure that my pal will not have an issue with you. Just tell them my name and what the order is and that should be the end of it. And it's a fusion place, half of them are monsters so that's not a problem at all.” You say airily as you spin in his desk chair again, winking at him at once of your go arounds.

His cheek dust with a soft blue and you stop suddenly to point at him.

“I know this is all super personal but inquiring minds, or at least just my mind, needs to know. If you turn blue, and are made of magic physically, would that make your Soul color blue?”

He sputtered for a second before looking at you with a forced smirk. “yes, why? are you interested in getting a peek at it?”

It was your turn to turn colors. “N-no that's not what I was getting at! I mean well, scientifically speaking it would be fascinating but I don't want to fight you and I'm not looking to- Stop laughing at me!” 

He was losing it, laughing loudly at your scrambling to explain yourself. You just cross your arms and pout, which serves to only make him laugh harder and louder at you. Tears were almost coming out of his sockets and you huffed. 

“Fine, I'm eating all of the sweet and sour when it gets here. I'm not going to share with you anymore.”

“oh you dont mean that.” He says, shooting you a wink. 

“Yes I do. So there.” You say, sticking your nose in the air dramatically.

“awe come on dont be so sour, i know youre sweet on me.” He drawled.

You glare at him but can't think of anything to say so you instead return to spinning in his desk chair as he laughs at you. 

“Laugh now skele-boy. Laugh it up.” You say darkly as he shakes his skull at you. 

Your phone lights up and you stop long enough to address him directly. “The foods here, wanna grab it? He should be at the front desk right now.” 

He nods and gets to his feet slowly before slipping down the hall and out of sight.

As soon as he is gone you jump into action, pulling out the airhorn and duct tape and getting to work on his desk chair. Pulling it up as far as you could go you make it sit much too high to where he'll just thoughtlessly reach under to push the pedal. When he does that....well let's just say he's in for a bit of a rude surprise. The only issue was that you could see some of it from the right angle.

Thankfully that was easily fixed by throwing one of his many blue hoodies over the seat. The draping of the fabric hid it perfectly and you sat back down on his bed this time with a wide grin just as he came back with the bags of take out. 

You ate rather quickly and bid him goodbye, Liam walking past just when you figured he would. You knew his schedule rather well lately. 

It wasn't until the next morning around six that you hear the blaring honk and the startled curses that accompanied it. You smiled contently and rolled over to sleep a bit longer, satisfaction making you look much like a cat who had caught the canary. 

Liam glared at you, knowing just from your face you were the culprit.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So I think I got all of the colors down at this point, and what they represent like. Symbolically and what not but I still don't have a great grasp on what monsters are capable of magically?” You say out of the blue one day while you are sprawled out on Sans bed.

It became a quick habit of yours to just jump onto it and take up as much room as possible because it never failed to make Sans get up and pace the room. He didn't sit much in his desk chair mostly because he couldn't get the tape off of it so the air horn was still there, waiting for him to forget for only a moment. It never failed to make you smile like a maniac. Since he couldn't, or at least wouldn't, sit on the bed because of you, he just paced. Something about him just passing back and forth as he spoke made you think of many of your professors and it wouldn't be the first time you had voiced that. 

“well ya know green heals an' in general the healing an' how useful an' skilled it is depends on the knowledge an' skill of the user. Pap can heal bones like nothing but ya get something he doesnt have like a busted up lip or somethin like that an' hes got some trouble.” He said, gesticulating a little as he did so. 

“And there aren't many monsters that have red, or that can even use red magic, so asking about that is a moot point. But what about orange? Papyrus tried explaining something about kinetic energy, but he kept just saying that you had to move and you'd be fine and that did absolutely nothing for me. And what about blue?” You ask, sitting up as you tried to get a better look at him.

He took that opportunity to sit down immediately next to you and shrug. 

“orange is based off of kinetic energy and essentially the speed in which stuff moves. so when Pap says to move and youll be fine he means when an orange magic attack comes at ya you move an' it doesnt effect ya. blue can be kinda complicated but essentially its got to do with gravity.” He explains, laying back and getting comfy, which really means just snuggling into his hoodie and looking at you with half lidded eyes.

“Can humans tap into magic?” You ask suddenly.

“some. its pretty rare on the surface it seems but some theorize that the closer a human is to monsters the more likely they are to tap into latent magical abilities.” He said, glancing at you with one glowing eye. “so i guess any human could tap into it with the right environment but most dont.”

“I wonder what that would be like. I've always grown up with the idea that magic is just the word for stuff science hasn't explained yet but...Souls and magic like what monsters do, even you. I can't just hide behind my textbooks and deny that sometimes things just are in a way that isn't perfectly explainable.” You say, staring at the palms of your hands intently, as if some magic would spontaneously burst from your fingertips. 

He didn't say anything to that, only fixed you with an intent stare when you glanced up from your hands to his face. Both of his glowing eye points were trained on your face and you felt yourself grow warm as you stared back. He leaned closer to you, only slightly, the slightest amount. You felt yourself slide a bit closer to him as well, like a magnetic pull was dictating your movement and you swallowed thickly before breaking the heavy silence suddenly. 

“You know. You never did tell me what exactly you did with James.” You ask quietly, laying back so as it put some distance between you both.

“...i used my magic. which is blue. might a made the gravity so heavy it snapped a few bones. might a made it a bit hard to breath for a bit while i let him know that he best not so much as look at you or Pap sideways.” He said matter of factly, though he did seem to slouch even more so if that was possible under your unwavering gaze.

You kept staring for a moment before nodding and rolling onto your side and curling closer to him again. 

“Sans?” You say in a small voice.

“yeah?” He answered just as softly.

You lean towards him and set your head on his shoulder, mildly surprised by how soft and almost fleshy it felt but not putting much thought into it for now. That could wait for another day.

“Thank you.” You say, clearing your throat to get rid of the suddenly choked feeling. “For saving me I mean.”

“a course, Pixie.” He murmured, throwing one arm over your shoulder.

You both sat like that in comfortable silence before Papyrus practically kicked in the door for his daily drop off of brother spaghetti. You fell off of the bed with a shout and spent about half an hour assuring Papyrus that you were fine despite the bruise coloring your temple. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Papyrus? I'm not completely sure if I'm ready for this?” You say nervously, bouncing from foot to foot as you watch him stretch.

Soft 'nyeh's are all you hear as he twists and turns in his spot, crouching and uncrouching, somehow working up some type of a sweat though you still couldn't figure out the biology behind that one. 

Why he was stretching when he didn't have any muscles to pull in the first place was a question you left unvoiced. Sans sat off to the side watching, a hot dog in hand seemingly out of nowhere. Where did he get that from there's nothing like a hot dog stand anywhere in this town??

Regardless on this beautiful Sunday morning you were not in bed, nor were you in a bar as you might usually be. You weren't even in your lab, no you were out in the park, in gym clothes as Papyrus stretched. You were going to train today.

“Remind me again why I need to train?” You call when he doesn't answer you. 

“BECAUSE DEAR FRIEND! IF SOMETHING SIMILAR TO THE SITUATION YOU HAD WITH THAT JAMES HUMAN HAPPENS AGAIN THIS TIME YOU WILL BE PREPARED.” He shouted as he finally finished his movements and stood tall.

If his scarf was still on you imagine it may have waved in the wind heroically with the stance he had just struck. 

“ALRIGHT PYX. FIRST I SHALL ENGAGE YOU IN A CONFRONTATION. THEN FROM THERE I SHALL GUIDE YOU THROUGH SO YOU LEARN THE ROPES. DO NOT WORRY, I AM QUITE STRONG AND STURDY SO DO NOT HOLD BACK WHEN TRYING TO SPAR WITH ME.” He shouts before he flung one hand out before him and made a grasping motion.

You gasped when you felt all of your senses narrow in on a point in the center of your chest, but deeper somehow, and a soft pop like that of a cap coming off of a bottle sounded. The world seemed duller, softer, fuzzy at the edges. Like you were drunk but with much more clarity. That is, at least it was before you caught sight of it.

Before you, floated a bright yellow cartoon like heart. It made you think of buttercups, of sunflowers and buttered popcorn, or the scent of lemon in tea during the summer. Of a hot day with an ice cube in your fist or the sun when it first rises. Of your father's telescope and the first time you had ever seen a shooting star, of your glow in the dark stars at night and your favorite pair of rain boots. 

You didn't even realize you were crying until it all disappeared and you found yourself on your knees, Papyrus trying to haul you to your feet and failing as you sat there, dumbfounded. 

“What was that?” You asked as he carefully grabbed you under your arms and dragged you to the bench next to Sans.

“THAT WAS YOUR SOUL, PYX.” He said, wringing his hands in worry as you sat there, without moving.

“i think ya should take smaller steps bro, Pyx can't handle how cool your training is.” Sans said carefully, shooting you a worried glance.

You for the most part were just trying to calm your racing heart. Everything was too bright, too loud, too much too too much. You felt like you couldn't breath. You start to hyperventilate and feel light headed before hands grab your shoulders and pull you close.

Your nose is buried in the familiar scent of slightly musty tomato and some cologne that you always catch a hint of in Sans' room. Your eyes are filled only with the color of cyan as warm radiates from his chest and you slump against him. 

You can hear Papyrus and Sans speaking but no specific words are caught as you let your eyes close and try to remember how to breath properly. 

At some point, you fall asleep and wake up to your bed, as disorienting as that is. A Tupperware container of spaghetti is in the mini fridge when you check, with a note from Papyrus telling you to rest up and that next training session will be much smaller and easier. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was just a lazy Friday night. Usually you would be out at a bar but Sans had for some reason invited you over for a movie night and you were not about to turn down free food. He said he was going to order from some fusion pizza place you had never heard of yet and you were more than hyped just because of that. 

When he had went on to explain that he wanted to binge watch a bunch of sci-fi movies you almost shouted in excitement. Instead you had just nodded your head violently and ran down the hall to grab your favorite pair of pajamas and your blanket before racing back to his room. 

He had his laptop set up on his bed on top of a cooling station and already had his netflix up and running. The pizza was set to arrive in about ten minutes, and you were to make a list of good sci-fi movies so that you both would be well and ready on your way for a wild ride of lots of nit picking.

At least he was, it would be a usual night of movies for you that way. 

Regardless you were still excited and more than ready to get going at the playlist of movies. He ordered two extra cheesy pizzas so there was no issue with the toppings at the least between you two. You had a backpack full of the supplies you felt were necessary for a pizza movie night, which was all of your DVDs you could fit into it, your laptop if you needed your personal library, and a bottle of deliciousness.

Sans set the pizzas on his desk and nabbed himself a few slices, starting up an old black and white movie about giant ants before flinging himself onto his bed and pouring a metric ton of ketchup onto his slices. 

He looked at you expectantly as if you were going to make a comment about it but instead you carefully got two slices for yourself, and then rummaged in you bag for your own perfect topping. He watched curiously as you sat on the bed primly, and then proceeded to pour at least a quarter of the bottle of ranch dressing onto your pizza. 

It was only half a second but you could have sworn you say heart shapes in his eyes as he watched you dig in with gusto.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You didn't want to feel. Actually that was a lie. You wanted to feel smart. You wanted to feel important. What you didn't want to feel was this weird bubbling warmth when you thought of Sans. What you didn't want to feel was the crushing weight of mourning you felt if you thought about your father for too long a time. What you didn't want to feel, was your own emotions for right now. 

Drinking usually fixed that. You felt things while drinking, for certain, but they were physical feelings. Not love or sadness or hate or frustration.

Instead you felt the rough coarseness of the rug on your cheek from where you laid on the floor. You felt the gentle breeze of the fan blow over your feet. You felt your heavy tongue lying against your slightly fuzzy teeth. 

You felt your own hair tickling your cheek. You felt the room spin like a record player someone has left on and you felt slightly sick to your stomach.

You felt a lot of thinks when you drank, but blessedly, you didn't feel sad. 

You felt nothing, in that regard.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“ya know, you drink a lot.” Sans says one day as you both sit in a booth at Grillby's. 

You don't remember exactly when it started but you had began to meet up there every Sunday after Papyrus was done with training you in the park. It was a short walk and you enjoyed the company so you didn't think much of.

More often than not all you did was grab lunch and shoot the shit. Talk about your work that didn't get completely talked out while in the lab or each other's rooms and traded stories. Surface stories, at least. Sans never did talk much about the Underground, and you didn't talk much at all about your past before coming to college. You hadn't even attempted to talk about your family. It was all very guarded, in a sense you felt. But you weren't brave enough to push it unless you were particularly drunk.

Which unsurprisingly you were, at this particular instant. 

“whaddya talkin about. I'm sober a lot too.” You shoot back, picking at your fries moodily at the turn of the conversation. 

He sighs and leans on the table, jaw set on one hand as he stared at you, through you really. 

“what i mean is that every time we come here for food you order enough alcohol to drown aaron.” 

“I do not.” 

“yes, you really do.” He says stubbornly, leaning towards you, which makes you shrink back in your seat.

Say what you will about monsters and their unending capacity to be kind and loving, and as much as you got along with Sans, he could be intimidating when he wanted to be. Now was one of those times as you tried to avoid his piercing gaze. 

“what arent you telling me pyx.” He says quietly, pining you with his look,

“That's none of your fucking business is it now?” You grit out, attempting to scoot out of the seat and escape this sudden interrogation.

You feel a strange heaviness and find you can't, and glare at him, outraged.

“Sans. Let me go, right now.” You growl.

“not until you tell me what is going on with you pyx.” He says back, matching your tone.

You can feel tears welling up in your eyes already from frustration.

“Why don't you spill about the Underground first huh? Or is that off limits? Seeing as you want to know all about my dirty past why don't you fucking tank up and tell me all your shit that you don't want aired, huh?” You spit, trying to ignore the tears tracking down your face.

You don't even care that you're making a scene in the bar, monsters and other humans are glancing over and murmuring but you don't care. You don't. You don't fucking care anymore.

Sans is speechless as you take in a deep, shaking breath, and fix him with a steady stare.

“You want to know why I drink so badly? Alright. My mom is dead. Because of me. Died in childbirth. My dad is dead. Also because of me, got in an accident while looking for my stupid selfish ass. My grandmother hates everything I represent and tried to mold me into the perfect clone of my mother and never could manage it, so I am a failure in her eyes. I've never had any real friends before Liam when I first got here, and everyone wants me to be their little spotlit genius and have my name on their papers even if all I did was spellcheck because my name carries weight, but my own opinion? Doesn't fucking matter. I drink to remember what the fuck the stars look like on a clear night, how is that for an explanation? Now. Let. Me. Go.” You snarl at him.

You feel the weight drop off of your body and you shoot up and out the door faster than anyone could stop you. Through your tears and still semi drunk state, you didn't see the car barreling towards you, only heard the sound of squealing tires and the blindingly bright lights filling your vision. 

It was like time slowed down, a flash of blue, white, musty ketchup and a rumbling deep in your core you couldn't properly pinpoint and then blackness. Blacker yet blacker yet blacker blackness and then you were tumbling on the ground, rolling in the grass of the park across from Grillby's, Sans besides you as you hear the car peal off. 

You gasp and rub the heels of your hands into your eyes to try and calm yourself. You felt any semblance of control slip away from you as you started to sob. You could have died. You could have just got someone else killed, again. Sans just saved you, right after you yelled at him what if he had died and the last thing you had done was tell him off. 

“I'm sorry. I'm so sorry i'm so sorry im so sorry s o s o r r y” You sob, flinching when you feel a hand grab your shoulder. 

You somehow manage to find yourself in Sans' lap, clutching his hoodie as you burrowed your face into his neck and cried. You can feel his fingers carding through your hair, as he shushes you wordlessly, rocking a bit as he holds you just as close.

“you gotta be more careful pixie...” He mumbles, teeth pressed against your crown. 

You only cry harder and shake your head.

“I'm sorry.” You murmur.

“im sorry too.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was silly. Something small, something that shouldn't have bothered you in the slightest. It was just a bowl. Just a ceramic bowl. But...it had been a part of the set your dad had bought for you when you first went off to college. It was one of the few things you had directly from him. It was the last bowl of the set that hadn't somehow gotten broken yet. 

The shards lay at your feet as you stared down at the scene. Tears blurred your vision as you tried to keep calm and knelt down to pick up the pieces.

“I can fix it, yeah, glue, I've got super glue that works on ceramic stuff doesn't it? Yea-ah.” You hiccuped as you cried, clutching the bits and pieces of the bowl too tight in your hands.

Blood dripped onto the floor as you continued to kneel there, not feeling or thinking anything other than the sound of your fathers voice and the way you never got to say good bye. 

That's how Papyrus found you, later that day when he passed by to visit with Sans. 

You swore him to secrecy as he healed your hands and carefully took the bowl shards from you, putting it into a zip lock baggie before shushing you and telling you to not worry. He knew what to do. 

You were too exhausted emotionally to fight him as he walked off with the broken pieces of memories in his hands. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was a simple plan really. You had needed to go shopping for some things and happened to pass by the febreeze. There was a wonderfully strong scent of pomegranates because some hooligan had put a hairband around it and it was currently spinning on the floor emptying itself into the aisle. Being a good Samaritan you stooped down and got the band off it the canister, but as you looked at the items in hand an idea had started to sprout and grow in your mind.

You had bought the strongest scent you could find after testing all of them, which ended up being some sort of fresh linen and lemon mix. Then you had gone and found the aisle that had hardware. A rubber band or a hair band wasn't good enough, in your humble opinion. 

That was why, with a slightly manic smile, you ran down the hall to Sans' room, ripped the zip tie as hard and securely as you could around the trigger, and threw the canister of febreeze into his room before pulled the door closed and ran back down to your own room. 

You could hear some banging before his door swung open and his footsteps as he came your way but your door was locked long before he reached out and took your doorknob in his hands. 

Watching him out of the peephole struggling with the canister was just an added bonus as you texted him your standard text of the clapping emoji only. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Almost an entire week goes by where you don't see one glimpse of Sans. Papyrus tells you not to worry about it, but is awfully dodgy about it when you ask what is up. Something about it being the time of the year. Did monsters have allergies? 

Regardless you took it upon yourself to go to Sans' room and see if you could catch him. So outside his door you stood, tapping your foot after you knocked. There was some scrambling to be heard behind the door, before it opened the barest of a crack. One wild blue flaming eye peered at you. His breath sounded labored and when the eye seemed to finally focus on you, you heard a soft whine. He must be sick as a dog. 

“Sans unlock the door, you sound like you've got something real bad. Have you even come out of your room the past week?” You said, leaning against the door a little to try and force it open. 

A soft growl made you pause in shock before the door clicked shut.

“go away.” Came his muffled voice from behind the door.

“Sans just tell me what I could do to help you out, you sound really sick and Pap is still at work so he can't come and do his healing thing.” You say through the door, twisting the handle and leaning on it. 

He hadn't locked it in time and was likely startled in the fact that you had decided to just barge right on in. Falling wasn't part of the plan but you also had expected him to maybe put up a fight so when the door swung straight open with no resistance you fell straight to the floor with a puff of air escaping your emptied lungs. 

When you rolled over and coughed slightly, your eyes landed on bones. Many many bones that you had not seen before today. It seemed that because of whatever kind of sickness Sans had had him overheated enough to shed his signature hoodie and his shirt as well. His shorts were tied tightly to keep them on his hip bones. Your eyes however were drawn to his chest where a deep looking gouge swept across his sternum. It made you shiver.

The glow of his eyes grew even brighter and you felt another shiver run through your body for an entirely different reason. You were hauled to your feet abruptly, and found yourself breathless again, being so close to him. His bones felt hot against your skin, your hair standing on end as you locked eyes with him. You could feel the bones of his arms caging you against his bare chest, his ribs not quite crushing into your soft flesh, his labored breath puffing against your face.

It was as if time itself had stopped. It reminded you of those times when you were younger, when you would lay down on the soft dewy grass and stare straight up into the star filled blackness and feel small. His eyes made you think of constellations. Shaking yourself out of that strange daze you huffed and averted your gaze. 

You set the back of your hand against his forehead and frown.

“You are burning to the touch and I don't think that's normal for you even if you aren't human.” You said as you set your hands against his shoulders and turned him in a half circle so he was back to his bed. “Alright. Into bed with you.”

“w-what?” He managed to ground out, as if snapped out of a trace as you backed him towards his bed. 

“You need rest if you are sick and you obviously are. Get in bed. I'll bring you some water and a cool towel and then I'll leave you to rest up proper. At least try and answer texts you ass. You can't just hole up for a whole week and expect people not to worry about you.” You scold as you push him onto the bed and fuss over him, throwing the blanket over him before rushing off for the glass and towel. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Sans...” You slur softly. 

You are laying on his bed, besides him, staring at the ceiling. The room still smells slightly of lemon, but it's mixed with the smell you have come to expect with Sans. Quite well, but regardless. 

“hm?” He grunts.

You swallow thickly and roll on your side, propping your head up to get a better look at him. In the dimly lit room the shades fall over his face and would make him seem empty, if it weren't for the soft glowing of his eyes which were trained on you curiously.

“What are we?” You ask. 

“a monster and a human.” He says swiftly, averting his gaze.

“That's...not what I meant. And you know it.” You say, looking down at the bed spread, trailing your fingertips over the paisley pattern. 

“friends, id hope.” He mutters, though it's so soft you aren't sure if it was directed at you.

“Sans.” You say.

“pyx.” 

“Sans, I. I think I like you, you know? Like I like like you, I like you a lot.” You say, sitting up and looking at him. “I like you more than just a little like and I want. I don't know. I want to try? If you want to I just I want to try with you, if you want to try with me.” 

He stares at you for a moment. The moment stretches on longer and you swallow again, nervousness spreading through you like a fire, burning your cheeks and making your hair raise on end as you watch him just as silently. 

Thoughts ran through your head of how you could just try to play it off as a joke maybe, or just leave. Maybe you should just leave, maybe this was a mistake maybe you need to back off, he couldn't think of you that way...You were the weird one. 

“Pyx. I dont think you mean that.” He says finally after sitting up and putting a bit of distance between you two by standing. 

“What?” You ask, confused.

“i think you...shit this sounds so harsh but. i think you just are interested in me, but not in the way you think?” He tries to explain.

His back was turned to you.

“What is that supposed to mean?” You ask, fighting down the choking feeling rising in your throat.

“Pyx... youre a scientist. scientists, they find lots of things interesting, because they are new or strange or different. they like to be the first to figure out stuff.” He says.

You stand up, staring at his back for a moment as the tears well in your eyes. 

“You think I see you as some sort of, of experiment?” You shout, hands shaking as you ball them up into fists. 

“yes.” He says, not bothering to turn to look at you.

You don't say anything. You pick up your bag, hugging it tightly to your chest and walk out the door, slamming it shut behind you before you quickly make your way to your room and fling yourself into bed. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


	11. So Why Do You Insist On Wearing Clothes?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY

Standing there, at the sink you stare at your own blood shot eyes. You stare, and cry and try to puzzle out where it all went wrong.

It was at least two weeks after your confession.

Two weeks where you had stopped meeting with Papyrus for training, stopped meeting with Sans for lunch, stopped going to the lab. Stopped coming out of your room.

You were staring at someone you didn't even recognize, in the mirror. It's three in the morning, give or take. Liam had tried to talk to you, tried to take the bottle out of your hand but you had lashed out. Immediately stormed to the bathroom and let the heavy door slam behind you as you hid away from his concern. 

The bottle was still in your hand.

You raise it, about to drink it but the sight in the mirror stops you. The tears freely falling as you stare at the woman who looks...tired. Looks ready to be done, with everything.

You look at the bottle. Stare at it so hard that the label blurs before you feel your throat close. 

“No.” You murmur, as you put the bottle down. 

“No.” You say, slightly stronger as you pour the rum down the drain. 

Watch the dark liquid swirl and disappear down the hole.

“No.” You say, louder, as you drop the bottle into the garbage and wash your face.

“I'm done doing this.” You say, staring the woman in the mirror in the eyes before you turn and leave.

“Liam...I need help.” You finally admit, hugging him close. “I need help.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day all of your bottles were empty. Liam and you had gathered them all and you had personally poured each and ever last one down a drain or into a toilet. There had been some crying, some attempting at weaseling your way out of the decision you had made, even if it was a bit halfheartedly. Liam was ready to steer you back towards your goal.

Sober from now on, was the idea.

When you were coming back to your room from the bathroom, Papyrus caught sight of you and bolted towards you as Liam took the box of empties from you and stood a bit away.

Papyrus grabbed you immediately and hugged you so tenderly that you felt tears start up all over again. 

You never had cried this much in your life and it was starting to bother you, but Papyrus...You hadn't talked to him in a while. It was allowed for now.

“Pyx...I was very concerned for your well being. Sans has said nothing about you and you have not walked with me in the mornings for weeks...” He said in a too soft tone for Papyrus. 

Papyrus should never sound this soft and serious. Never. 

It struck you suddenly that you made him this way and the tears fell a bit faster as you clung to him and sighed shakily. 

“I'm so sorry Pap. I really am. I've been really stupid. It won't happen again. Never again.” You promise, wiping your tears away with your arm with a smile. 

“Well...If you are sorry then I accept your apology.” He said, smiling widely back. “DOES THIS MEAN YOU WILL BEGIN WALKING AND TRAINING WITH ME ONCE MORE?” 

There's the Papyrus you know. You laughed and nodded, sparing a glance at Sans' closed door before looking away. 

“Of course Pap. Actually...It's Sunday today isn't it? Let's go train. Right now. Just lemme change and we'll jog all the way to the park, just you and me.” You offer suddenly.

The sadness had hardened in your gut into a sort of resentment. Well. Not a resentment. An anger? Something less than full anger, something not quite separate from the sad. Hurt. You felt hurt still. And instead of drinking, as you had been...well today was a new day for you. 

“OF COURSE! LET ME JUST GO AND TELL SANS AN-” 

“No!” You shout, startling Papyrus with your rough tone. “I mean... Let him rest. Just you and I, for just today? I want to get started immediately and Sans always takes at least thirty minutes to get ready to go.” 

Papyrus looks at you, examines you. You feel your smile freeze on your face, but he shrugs after a moment and motions for you to lead the way. 

“OF COURSE, DEAR PYX. IT WILL STILL BE MARVELOUS WITH THE TWO OF US.” He says, following you as you quickly take off your sweats to reveal the shorts underneath and nab a hoodie from your bed. 

“Alright Pap, let's do this.” You say, determined to start your … recovery off right. 

With friends helping you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the time you had jogged to the park you could feel the sweat trailing down your back, but surprisingly Papyrus had paced both of you perfectly so you were not out of breath for more than a minute after arriving at your usual place. 

However you were feeling a bit sweaty. Uncomfortably sweaty, considering that you hadn't been that overworked jogging down to the park with Papyrus. And cold. Shivery. 

But this was your new start. Brand new shiny cold and sweaty, but new. It was supposed to be you.

So regardless of the cold that was creeping its way into your bones and deeper even than that even while your entire back was sticky and wet from sweat, you kept at it, stretching with Papyrus until he faced you.

“ALRIGHT PYX, I AM GOING TO CONFRONT YOU NOW, SO BE READY FOR YOUR SOUL!” He shouted.

It was still always weird, but the few times afterward the first when he had coaxed you into letting your Soul be ripped out into plain view hadn't been as bad as the first.

Unfortunately for you it was almost worse this time, after all the time of having it safe and sound inside. The cold sweat on your back and brow felt absolutely freezing as all of your senses zeroed out and your world was grey. 

You could almost feel the burn of whiskey on the back of your throat, and for a moment you wanted to cry from the want of the real feeling, but your breath was instead caught in your throat when you looked at what was laid out before you. Your Soul looked different. 

Instead of that brilliant pure sunflower like yellow, it was tinged slightly darker. Not quite orange, but not yellow either, almost as if someone had dusted it softly with a somewhat brown powder and then polished it. It looked like bronze, if bronze had a hint of gold beneath it. The color wasn't all that was different. The surface looked scratched, as if someone had tried to claw it apart with their nails, leaving gouges in it. In the very center looked like a hairline crack, not even noticeable from a distance, but you had drawn close to it, almost cupping it in your hands as you took in the changes that seemed to have come over you in the past two weeks or so.

“WOWIE PYX! YOUR SOUL HAS A NEW LAYER!” Papyrus shouted, eye almost bugging out. “YOU MUST HAVE REALLY HAD A BIG EVENT IN YOUR LIFE!” 

“What?” You ask, letting your hands drop to your side as you fell back into a slightly better defensive position as you normally did while training.

“OH, A LAYER IS … WELL... SOULS ARE BUILT UP OVER TIME, SO AS YOU GROW, YOUR SOUL SHOWS IT! LAYERS ARE WHAT MOST MONSTERS CALL IT WHEN AN EVENT HAS HAPPENED AND THE LOOK OF A SOUL CHANGES DRASTICALLY. SOULS ARE MADE OF MULTIPLE LAYERS, AND SO IF SOMEONE AH...WELL...YOU CAN EXPLORE THOSE LAYERS WHEN AH....YOU KNOW.” Papyrus blushes and stammers before coughing and readying himself as well. “REGARDLESS, IT IS NOW TIME TO PRACTICE!” 

And with that began the sparring.

It was a blur of activity for you, jumping and dodging for the most part. No matter what, despite wishing you could at times, you didn't fight back. Only acted as best as you could based on your instincts to make sure you got away from the bones that were thrown at you. At one point you winked at Papyrus, and then proceeded to fall straight on your face when you tripped over the smallest bone attack you had ever seen in your life. 

You rolled over and gasped as colors returned and the warmth of your Soul pulsed in your chest. A part of you almost expected to hear Sans' laugh at your fall, and when you propped yourself up on your elbows to look at his normal spot on the bench, you felt as if your stomach dropped out from under you.

Of course he wasn't there. You don't know why you let yourself forget so easily.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Papyrus didn't say much, other than praise for your good work after such a while away from training. He fell silent as you stared ahead, walking beside him. You were thinking of Sans, and your mood was dropping, so much so that he could feel it almost radiating off of you. 

“Pyx?” He murmured.

“Huh? Oh, sorry Pap. What's up?” You ask.

“Did something happen between you and Sans?” 

The knot in your stomach tightened and you felt as if you couldn't breathe. Stopping in place you struggled for a moment before sighing heavily and nodding at him.

“I don't much want to talk about it right now Pap. Sorry. I think I can get the rest of the way from here, I'll see you tomorrow, I promise. Same time as before, to walk to work.” You say, rushing past him and towards your dorm hall, trying to keep down the suddenly rising feeling of nausea. The sweat was making you feel disgusting and you didn't know if it was just your nerves or what, but you could swear you kept seeing something out the corner of your eye. 

You needed a nap.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unfortunately, a nap was not what you were going to get it seems, because since you closed your door, somewhat loudly you admit, and flopped onto bed, the noise began. 

Liam was out, but had left a note saying he was just going out for some Advil and ice, and the room was blessedly cool and dry. You hadn't even stripped and gotten into something comfortable before the piercingly loud sound of an air-horn went off. 

At first you thought that Sans had just forgotten and it was going to be as short lived as it usually was, but no.

It had been going for a good ten minutes now, and you had heard just about everyone else knock and grumble about it from the hallway. Sans didn't seem to be inclined to answer his door, right at the moment. If the even more upset sounds of other students was any indication. Everyone else had either left or found someway to drown out the drone of the horn, but you. You were going to murder yourself a skeleton, because for some reason you felt ill, listening to that horn. It made your brain rattle, made you want to hurl and you could have sworn that a few times in the midst of the horn you could hear his voice whispering to you about experiments and scientists. 

Swinging your legs over the bed, and stumbling as you slammed your door open you made your way to Sans' door and brought down your fist three times. 

“SANS FUCKING CUT IT OUT.” You screamed, getting a weird look from one of the students.

You basically snarled at them and they hurried away, head down as they practically skipped down the stairs to get away from you.

You were about to turn your attention back to banging on his door when the horn suddenly cut off. The ringing in your ears after that in the silence was almost as bad as the headache you felt coming on but you nodded and turned to walk away when the door swung open.

You were already turned away, if you turned your head just a bit you could look at him. 

“Pixie.” He said, softly. 

You held your breath, tense as you waited for him to say something else. Anything else.

But all you heard was the ringing of your ears in the silence.


	12. But Skeleton, you are my friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> YUP THIS IS THE END IT IS NIIIIIGH

“Sans...I don't think I can do this.” You finally whisper, breaking the silence that stretched on too long between you both. “I miss you. I really do, and I hurt in all sorts of ways right now but I can't. I can't go on like nothing happened when you said that about me...” 

You look down at your hands and clench them as if that would ground you as you swayed slightly in the hallway, still refusing to look at him.

“I really thought that maybe...Maybe you and I...I thought maybe you liked me back, and fine, if I was wrong I was wrong. But what hurts even worse is I thought that just maybe, you trusted me half as much as I trusted you.” You close your eyes to blink away the tears and feel your body shaking. “I thought you thought higher of me than that.”

Stifling silence was the only answer you got back from him. Growling softly under your breath you whirled around to look at him, hands shooting out to hold yourself up against the wall as you almost cart over. 

He stands there, no grin in sight, disheveled. Which was saying something because this wasn't normal levels of mess that you had come to expect with Sans. He looked like he hadn't cleaned his clothes in days. His bones had a slight dingy look to them, like teeth that had missed brushing for a day or two. His eyes looked at your, tired but attentive and you bit your lip so you wouldn't ask the question.

It was a tense moment before he finally spoke.

“i do trust you, Pyx.” He said, but you could only scoff at him.

“Of course you do, you trust me enough to be near your brother, and to let me into your room, and to see me when I'm most vulnerable.” You say, standing up without the support of the wall as you pointed at him accusingly. “But that's not the truth entirely is it? You trust me. Enough. To play around with my feelings and make me think that maybe you actually thought kindly of me. But you don't trust me. Not really. You think I'm some sort of sicko that wants to pull you apart to figure out how you work. You think I'm some sort of freak, who just sees your bones and wants to saw them in half to look at the insides, don't you? You think I'm some sort of abomination of nature that sees you like some sort of toy, don't you?” 

Your voice rose higher and higher until it cracked and the tears mixed into your mouth. 

“You don't give any shit about me or how I feel. Don't try and look at me now after two weeks and make it all better by lying to me. You don't trust me and I don't think for even a second you ever did.”

His eyes were too bright as they looked at you. Focused. Wide. As if you had surprised him. As if this wasn't exactly what he expected this encounter to turn into. Good. A sick part of you inside grinned at the look while the rest of you despaired. 

You didn't want to fight. Quite the opposite. You wanted to make up somehow, you wanted everything to go back to normal, you wanted to be able to watch movies with him while eating pizza and talk about different things you wanted to test in the lab, to sit close to each other on his bed and talk about nebulas and how unending the sky is once you pushed past the atmosphere. You wanted to have that soft calm silence instead of this heavy hard one. You wanted grab him and kiss him and have that be okay, but it wasn't, it never would be, and you weren't going to let him just lie to your face and forget what he said.

“Pyx, i swear im not lyin to ya i...i was scared, i didnt want to believe you. i didnt want to think that maybe for once somethin went right instead of wrong an' so i sabotaged myself before it could all go to shit but i didnt mean it. i lied that night. said the worst thing i could think of so you would hate me.” He said, reaching out for your hand, but you snatched it away and held it to your chest.

“You don't get to just wave it all away. You don't just get to hurt me like that and expect me to believe you now. That's not how it work, Sans.” You choke out. “I still like you a lot, but I don't know I trust you anymore. Not after that. Not when you're just telling me that you'll lie to me when it's convenient for you. Maybe if you proved to me that you won't do that again, but right now? Right now I've got to go.” And you hurry back to your room, shutting the door behind you carefully and locking it. 

You were shaking so hard you could hardly stand. You hoped Liam was going to get back soon, and thought that maybe something was seriously wrong, just before your legs gave out and you fell to the floor, shivers and convulsions coursing through your body. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Liam found you he immediately rushed you to the hospital. Apparently, quitting cold turkey on alcohol when you have such a high dependence on it can be potentially lethal and can lead to seizures, which is what you had somehow managed to survive through until Liam came to your rescue. 

The doctors ran tests on your urine, blood and hooked you up to an IV because of how severely dehydrated you were. Sometime after answering all of the questions, which always seemed to return back to how long exactly you had been drinking and how regular of an event that had been for the past year or so, along with all of the records being brought up from when you were younger about your anxiety disorder and depression that you had not been taking care of properly you lay there, staring at the ceiling and wishing for death. 

You texted both Liam and Papyrus regularly, and reassured them that it was more than fine that they couldn't drop everything to come and visit you in the hospital. Though some visitors other than the doctors and nurses might have taken your mind off of the strange presence you found yourself with. 

You swore you could see a dark looming figure, like a scarecrow made of ooze and pixels standing in the corner of your room but the doctors and nurses assured you that it was just a part of the withdrawal process to have visual hallucinations and after telling them the first time and getting told to sleep and given some pain pills you just stopped telling them. Sometimes you thought you could hear clicking noises, like a keyboard being typed on or maybe a mouse. Sometimes you thought it was a voice, through it all trying to tell you something that you just barely could hear, like trying to tune to a radio station but missing the mark each time.

Regardless the figure was unnerving.

Beyond that you would have to admit that the most surprising thing out of the entire ordeal was the fact that Sans was there by your side. Or at least, you thought he was. You didn't really know if it was your hallucinations, but at night after the time that guests should have been already escorted off the premises, he was there at your bedside, holding your hand when you pretended to sleep. You had woken up the first night to just the shortest blink of seeing him there, before he disappeared. 

Half of you wanted to believe it was actually him but you weren't sure. So for the last four or so nights while the doctors kept you in the hospital to make sure you didn't choke on your own tongue during a DT, you pretended to sleep. When it was all dark, and you were about ready to give up on it, he had appeared and held your hand gently, as if you would crumble away in his grip if he held you too hard. 

You always tried to stay awake as long as possible, and work up the nerve to maybe talk to him but never did. Each night at some point you fell asleep, and woke up to him gone. You wanted nothing more than to apologize. To tell him that you wanted to at least be friends. Being in the hospital and having the sobering fact of possible death loom over your head had kicked your ass into gear on a lot of things. You were going to sell your family home. Stay with Liam if he didn't mind for the summer while you found a place to buy up and live in. You were going to publish your paper soon and dedicate full time to personal research as well as possibly coming in for talks at the college for extra cash. You were going to make up with Sans. Meet up with Papyrus and make friends with the rest of his friends. You were going to live a full life if it killed you. But first you had to get your ass out of this dreary hospital. 

Finally after five days, you were released and went back to school. Liam had taken it upon himself to write out and take care of the doctors notes and speaking to any of the professors you had. 

Surreal was the best way to describe how you felt, going back to school after that entire ordeal. It was like you went to a detox clinic, you fancied pretending you were like the movie stars. Oh darling it was only a week, nothing too fabulous. 

In all reality you were just happy to be back in what felt like home. Papyrus just about broke your back when you first saw him after it all, and Liam squawk so hard you thought he had laid an egg as he tried to tell Papyrus to be more gentle with you.

You saw nothing of Sans.

At least, not that day.


	13. Yes Skeleton you are, you are my friend

He stumbles and curses softly under his breath, trying to just keep his sockets open for a bit longer. It was dark outside as he stuck a hand haphazardly out to catch himself before he fell over. He stood there for a moment, as if contemplating calling someone, but shook his head after a moment and continued forward.

There was a tense moment as he paused and stood stock still, trying not to pass out. The sound of other college students wandering around on the sidewalks and chatting in the cool night air reached him but he was too far gone to pay attention.

The moment that tried to drag him into the darkness of sleep passed and with a sigh of relief he swiped the card and stumbled inside, door slamming shut heavily behind him. Staring at the stairwell he muttered a soft 'fuck that' and crashed into the wall next to the elevator, slapping the wall a few times until the button was finally pushed. A chuckle bubbled up at the sound of his boney hands clicking against the smooth cool wall. 

The doors slide open and a blue bunny guy walked out, shooting him a quick glance and smile before going on his way.

By the time the elevator had gotten to the top he had a game plan in mind. He was going to do the thing before his courage left him, he was going to do it now. Now. Anytime now. 

The elevator doors open and he's dumped on his ass at the floor he had picked. A few minutes spent laying there, cheek pressed to the blessedly cool tile before he decided that was enough, and he got to his feet. Coming to the door he swayed for one moment before knocking on it carefully, or at least what he thought was carefully. Actually it was more like slamming, loudly.

“Pyx! PYX are you in there? PIXIE?” He shouts, slamming his open palm on the door. 

There was a heavy thump, like someone falling out of bed and the padding of feet before the door clicked open and swung to reveal a figure.

Instead of the concerned kind face he was expecting, there stood Liam.

Blinking he squints at the man and points, swaying in his spot. “You're not Pixie.” 

“No, I'm afraid not, Sans.” His voice was gravelly, as if he'd just woken up. “What are you doing here?”

“i was lookin' for Pixie...” He murmured softly, leaning on the door frame as if he was going to pass out at any moment.

“You know I should just shut the door on your face.” He said simply, sighing and shaking his head as he turned and went back into his darkened room. “Ugh fine...Hold on.” 

He must have passed out for a small time because the next moment he was face to face with you. A look of both crossness at being woken up in the middle of the night and concern for the skeleton draped on your doorway on your face.

“Sans. What in the world are you doing here?” You say, pushing him lightly enough to wake him up but not send his ass falling to the floor.

He opened his eyes and stared at you as if you were a star.

“See something you like, pal?” You say after a moment, one brow raised, your smile wry.

“yes-i mean no! shit. could you pretend you didnt hear that?” The words slipped out without a care as the battle to keep his eyes open got harder and harder. 

You smirked, but Sans was already nodding off where he stood, not catching the soft expression that came over your face.

“Alright you. Get in here. I'm going to forgive you for at least the night but in the morning, we're going to have a real long talk, alright?” You say, poking at his shoulder gently.

“...alright...” He mumbles, leaning on the wall.

A yawn cut off any other conversation as you lead him lead inside and he was out like a light as soon as his head hit the pillow of your bed. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When he woke up, there was a sticky note stuck to his forehead. Liam and you were both gone, leaving the room eerily empty.

-Hey, glad you're awake and all.   
We still have to sit down and honestly talk, but I figured I'd let you get ready for the day and meet me in the dining hall for lunch.  
Try not to scare any other humans to death at midnight.- 

The backside of it had a P.S.

-You may wish to watch where you step.-

What did that mean? Rubbing his eyes he swung his legs over and got off of the bed only to let out a startled yelp at the sound that ripped through the air. 

SSSSSSSSSSRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAW

You had left rubber screaming chickens everywhere. 

“I think I might be in love.” He murmurs to the empty room.

**Author's Note:**

> Shout out to Costumebleh for their drabble that inspired this!! Go check em out.


End file.
